Gigs AG, a company that has built a kind of operating system for mobile services, said today it has closed on a $73 million round of funding.

The Series B round was led by Ribbit Capital and saw participation from existing investors including Google’s Gradient Ventures, Y Combinator and Speedinvest.

Founded in 2020, Switzerland-based Gigs says it’s hoping to democratize the telecommunications industry by making it easy for any company to integrate mobile connectivity into their products.

The startup helps to reduce the costs and complexity involved in setting up a mobile service in one or more markets, while lowering the operational and service costs to almost nothing. Without Gigs’ software, it would likely take new entrants into the mobile market years to develop and refine their services.

More specifically, what Gigs’ operating system does is empower companies to launch their own mobile service on a premium network, and do this globally, within just a matter of weeks, through a single platform. It eliminates the need to hire large teams of telecom engineers, manage multiple vendors and platforms, and navigate compliance obstacles.

Gigs gives companies everything they need to launch a mobile service in a single platform, such as an application programming interface for connectivity, a hosted checkout, multi-currency payments suite and artificial intelligence-powered customer services. In doing this, it cuts through most of the complexity, shortens the time-to-market and slashes the costs of embedding mobile services into digital products.

Gigs’ latest funding round comes at a time when countless companies, particularly those in the financial services industry, are busy integrating mobile networking services into their product offerings. In the last year, neobanks such as Nubank, officially known as Nu Pagamentos S.A, and Revolut Group Holdings Ltd. have both launched travel eSIM services, allowing their customers to stay connected when traveling abroad.

Nubank has also become what’s known as a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO, having launched its subsidiary NuCel in Brazil, offering customers access to an independent network built on the infrastructure of larger telecommunications firms. Gigs handled much of the manual work involved in Nubank’s journey to becoming a mobile network operator, such as provisioning SIM cards, bundling cellular and data plans and so on.

Gigs provides three separate products, including a data-only eSIM offering that’s available globally, plus an enterprise-grade version that gives businesses access to phone plans in more than 50 markets. It’s essentially a way for multinational businesses to launch an internal mobile network. There’s also its full-fledged mobile service offering, which is for customers like Nubank that want to become an MVNO.

Hermann Frank, co-founder and Chief Executive of Gigs, said his mission is to make it as easy to get a phone plan as it is to order an Uber ride.

“The truth, however, is that phone plans are stuck in the past: analog, uniform, and, frankly, unloved,” said Frank (pictured left, alongside co-founder Dennis Bauer). “Extremely high barriers to entry have kept innovation out of the industry for too long. Gigs breaks down these hurdles by empowering any tech company to distribute phone plans directly through their apps, transforming connectivity from a standalone commodity into a core, customizable feature.”

With today’s funding, Gigs plans to expand its geographic footprint and enhance its product and service offerings. Ultimately, it wants to drive new innovation in the telecoms industry and help companies to create customized digital mobile experiences, increase customer engagement and unlock new recurring revenue streams.

Ribbit Capital’s Jordan Angelos said mobile connectivity is one of the most widely-used consumer services around the world, yet it consistently fails to deliver customer satisfaction. “Gigs is seizing a once-in-a-decade opportunity to revolutionize the $1 trillion-plus annual mobile subscription market, empowering innovators and trusted brands to digitize and enhance customer experiences,” he said.

Images: Gigs