UAE Investors Join Roamless’s $12M Round as eSIM Competition Heats Up

The travel eSIM startup is betting on owning telecom infrastructure to move beyond data-only services

Roamless has secured $12 million in a Series A round, adding fresh capital as it looks to broaden its offering beyond travel eSIMs toward a global mobile service model. The round was backed by investors including Shorooq, Finberg, JIMCO, and Revo Capital, and was led by Rasmal Ventures, taking the company’s total funding to $18 million following a seed round in 2024.

The raise comes amid rapid growth in demand for flexible international connectivity, particularly among frequent travelers and digital-first consumers. But Roamless’s strategy suggests it is targeting a broader opportunity than short-term travel data plans.

Moving away from the eSIM reseller model

Most eSIM providers today operate as resellers, relying on third-party telecom infrastructure and offering limited differentiation beyond pricing and coverage bundles. Roamless is taking a different route by running on its own carrier-grade telecom infrastructure, built by an in-house team with experience at major global operators such as Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, and Telia Sonera.

This infrastructure-first approach gives Roamless tighter control over network performance and customer experience, while also allowing it to develop services beyond data-only connectivity. However, owning and operating telecom infrastructure also brings higher complexity and capital requirements compared to reseller-based models.

Why infrastructure control matters

Roamless’s cloud-based telecom stack manages connectivity across hundreds of partner networks as a single system, allowing users to move across borders without switching SIM profiles or plans. This architecture is designed to support future services such as voice, SMS, and local phone numbers—features that most travel eSIM providers do not currently offer.

By building these capabilities in-house, Roamless is positioning itself closer to a full-stack telecom platform rather than a travel utility app. The bet is that infrastructure ownership will become a competitive advantage as users expect more persistent, always-on global connectivity.

Riding the eSIM adoption curve

Roamless’s expansion comes as mobile hardware continues to shift toward eSIM-first designs. Adoption accelerated sharply last year, with the eSIM market growing by around 85%, largely due to smartphone manufacturers making the technology standard. Although eSIM still accounted for less than one-fifth of global connections in 2024, industry forecasts suggest usage could become mainstream by the end of the decade.

With some new devices already removing physical SIM trays altogether, startups like Roamless see an opening to build mobile services that are no longer tied to national carriers or physical cards.

Beyond consumers: a push into B2B

In its next phase, Roamless plans to expand beyond direct-to-consumer offerings. The company is developing APIs and B2B integrations that would allow airlines, airports, online travel agencies, financial institutions, and superapps to embed connectivity directly into their customer journeys.

This move reflects a broader trend in telecom and travel tech, where connectivity is increasingly treated as an embedded service rather than a standalone product. Success here will depend on Roamless’s ability to integrate smoothly with enterprise systems while maintaining network reliability at scale.

New services on the roadmap

Roamless says it plans to roll out several new offerings, including:

• Local phone numbers in more than 20 countries
• Voice and SMS services within its app
• AI-driven features to optimise network performance and pricing

Together, these services would move the company closer to acting as a persistent global mobile provider rather than a trip-based solution. Whether users adopt this model long-term remains an open question, particularly as traditional carriers and device makers respond.

A competitive and capital-intensive path ahead

Roamless currently reports over one million users across 200+ countries and claims nearly fivefold year-over-year growth. While these figures point to early traction, the company is entering a space where competition is intensifying—not just from other eSIM startups, but also from global carriers, smartphone manufacturers, and platform companies exploring embedded connectivity.

Owning infrastructure may offer differentiation, but it also raises execution risk. Scaling telecom systems across regions while maintaining service quality is a challenge even for established operators.

Conclusion: testing a new model for global connectivity

Roamless’s Series A funding highlights a growing belief among investors that global mobile connectivity is due for structural change. Rather than relying on roaming agreements and fragmented carrier relationships, the company is betting on a unified, infrastructure-led approach.

Whether Roamless can translate this vision into a sustainable global operator model will depend on its ability to scale infrastructure, win enterprise partnerships, and retain users beyond travel use cases. For now, the funding gives the company the resources to test whether a new kind of mobile operator can realistically emerge in an industry long dominated by incumbents.