Raylo secures £2.9m seed funding

Following a successful launch earlier this year, Raylo is on a mission to shake up the mobile sector.

The British start-up has announced that it has secured a new round of investment in seed funding.

Raylo gives customers an alternative to expensive bundled handset contracts, and this new funding round will propel its growth in the UK market.

Led by Macquarie Group’s Specialised and Asset Finance team and Guy Johnson, who co-founded Carphone Warehouse alongside Charles Dunstone and David Ross, the funds will develop the company’s technology platform and expand its UK customer support infrastructure.

The scale and timing of the new funding round signals a seismic shift in the way that consumers consider mobile phone ownership and attempt to address an estimated 45 million tonnes of annual e-waste.

Global concerns about the environmental impact of modern consumption have already given rise to the subscription economy across other products like cars, movies and music. 

“Consumers are increasingly worried that the pace of technology innovation is quite literally costing the Earth, yet none of us can really imagine a world where we would be willing to give up our mobile phones,” commented Karl Gilbert, CEO of Raylo.

“We created Raylo to give consumers the freedom and savings that come with a SIM-only network contract, combined with a simple, low monthly subscription for a SIM-free handset.”

Guy Johnson added: “We’re approaching a new era in the way that people think about technology and the old distribution model that I helped build in the 1990’s is reaching the end of its shelf-life.

“Raylo represents a new model that is fairer to consumers’ wallets and kinder to the planet, without asking us to compromise our mobile experience. I’m excited to see this trend gather momentum into 2020 and beyond and look forward to Raylo leading this market transformation.”

Lou Tricarico, a Managing Director in Macquarie Group’s Specialised and Asset Finance team also commented: “We see great potential in Raylo’s leadership team and look forward to supporting them to introduce innovative ways to overcome some of the most important challenges in the consumer mobile market.”