Rebtel, an international calling service based out of Sweden, has stated their desire to raise roughly $20 million this year. This financing would be used to hasten growth, their chief executive recently stated. Rebtel’s primary competitors are WhatsApp and Skype. Rebtel garnered about $80 million in 2016 in sales, and roughly $75 million in 2015. The calls that they handled were primarily that of European and American customers.
Magnus Larsson, Rebtel’s chief executive, recently said that sales could possibly grow by about twenty percent over the next few years without the added cash revenue. With the cash injection, however, they expect they could double their sales every year.
While speaking recently with investors, Larsson stated that the only thing the company lacks for faster growth is a good amount of capital. He said that the $20 million the company was asking for, in his opinion, would cause a growth rate within the company of 100% per year. Expansion plans that could be addressed with the additional money would also allow a focus within the US market, as well.
In addition to competing with WhatsApp and Skype for VoIP, Rebtel also has a hearty competition in place with Britain’s own Lycamobile.
Rebtel shifted from a web-based protocol in 2014, to an app-based system in 2015. The year 2016 brought a program in which contractors were rewarded for locating and signing new customers to their ranks, however Rebtel took an overall loss of SEK 59 million in the year 2015. With those figures in mind, it is expected that their profitability will fall short in the short term, even if their desired funding comes through.
Early in 2016, Rebtel first introduced unlimited, free calls to the United States via a WiFi connection. Normally, international calls are incredibly expensive unless you are using an app such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Even then, with those services, you have to have a WiFi connection to make those calls.
Rebtel was able to allow the calls by first utilizing a data or WiFi connection, and then routing the call through phone lines in the local vicinity. In this way, no data or WiFi are necessary for the brunt of the call and users could still talk internationally, as long as they wish.
In areas where Rebtel is not available, user can still opt in to their calling services for a fee starting at two dollars per month. For this service, an internet connection is required.
