InvestIndia News | April 23, 2022
Telecom startup WIOM has raised $4 Mn in a seed funding round led by YourNest and 9Unicorns. The round also saw participation from other existing investors such as Auxano and Omidyar Network India. The company will use the funding to scale its business, invest more on technical stack, and enhance its product offerings.
“With their [investors’] support and trust, we are confident that we’ll achieve our mission to serve 50 million households in the next 5 years. We plan to utilize this investment to enhance our product offerings and scale our business in record time,” said Satyam Darmora, Founder, Wiom.
WIOM was earlier called I2e1. It was founded in 2015 by Satyam Darmora, Nishit Aggarwal, Maanas Dwivedi, Natraj Akella and Ashutosh Mishra. It rebranded itself as WIOM in 2021 with an aim to create more than 1 Mn Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI)-compliant hotspots across India.
WIOM currently offers services only in Delhi but plans to expand across India. The startup claims to have more than 10,000 subscribers on its rolls and plans to scale up to 25X times in the next 12 months.
“India has already realized significant value through mobile internet. For the next leap in internet penetration to reach every corner of Bharat, Wiom can deliver democratized internet access to tens of millions of customers,” Sunil Goyal, Founder and Managing Partner YourNest, in turn, said.
“We are excited by the role Wiom can play in generating additional income opportunities for the large number of ‘resellers of internet’,” said Aditya Misra, Principal, Omidyar Network India.
Darmora added that Wiom is creating a blockchain-based model that seeks to create a distributed “Internet delivery model” in the country.
“This will enable more people to have access to the internet while also enabling them to augment earnings from any “extra internet” capacity. This new approach will help create a “people’s network” to use the internet,” he said.
Link: Telecom Startup WIOM Bags USD 4 Mn In Its Seed Funding Round Led by YourNest and 9 Unicorn