Business

Raylo secures £2.9m investment to propel its mission to disrupt UK mobile

Raylo's founders (from left) Karl Gilbert (chief executive), Richard Fulton (chief strategy officer) and Jinden Badesha (chief procurement officer)
Raylo's founders (from left) Karl Gilbert (chief executive), Richard Fulton (chief strategy officer) and Jinden Badesha (chief procurement officer) Raylo's founders (from left) Karl Gilbert (chief executive), Richard Fulton (chief strategy officer) and Jinden Badesha (chief procurement officer)

TWO Northern Ireland-born entrepreneurs behind a Belfast- and London-based start-up have secured a fresh round of seed capital to help fund their mission to disrupt the UK mobile sector.

Former investment bankers Karl Gilbert (32) from Belfast and Enniskillen man Richard Fulton (50) are behind Raylo, launched in May and which claims to offer customers an alternative to expensive bundled handset contracts.

Having started in traditional financial services, both then worked in tech start-ups and saw first-hand how a fresh approach, technology and great people can disrupt tired industries.

Gilbert and Fulton then created challenger telecoms company Raylo (its Belfast operation is based at the Ormeau Baths) with Jinden Badesha.

They say they offer customers a new way to access the latest mobile technology independent from their network via "a simple subscription, done in a smarter way, which is better for your pocket and the planet".

And having secured £1.6m pre-seed investment in June, they've followed that up with a second round, this time £2.9m led by Macquarie Group’s specialised and asset finance team and by Guy Johnson, who co-founded Carphone Warehouse.

The funds will help develop the company’s technology platform and expand its UK customer support infrastructure.

Raylo (whose earlier backers include Sir Lenny Henry) also revealed it has plans to double its headcount in Belfast to 20 in the next year or so.

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

Chief executive Karl Gilbert said: “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.

“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.

“Raylo has built a closed loop into its business model – a subscription service delivering the latest iPhone every 24 months, where old devices are returned and prepared for re-use in another consumer market, contributing to a circular economy.”

According to its website, Raylo offers the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, with subscriptions starting at £25.99 a month.

Gilbert added: “Until now, consumers have been stuck between a rock and a hard place, either paying £1,000 upwards for handsets or signing up to expensive bundled handset and SIM contracts with one of the networks.

“We created Raylo to give consumers the freedom and savings that come with a SIM-only network contract.”