A Letter from the CEO: The Story Behind floLIVE’s $15.5 Million Investment, and The Start of Our Relationship with Intel Capital

Since day one, floLIVE has been a company looking to deliver something very unique.

I often talk about our flywheel strategy, and how we believe that the only way to truly serve the market is to deliver value to MNOs and enterprises alike. To make this happen, we build close relationships with the MNOs themselves, rather than simply mine them for connectivity on behalf of enterprise customers. Of course, we work with and for the enterprises that we serve, but we have found that the best way of getting value for everyone, is to work both segments together and allow them to feed off one another.

A change of pace

In 2020, we realized what a challenging task this would be. We wanted to use the same technology for both segments, but we saw that each has its own flavors and its own needs. We took a step back, and we highlighted two key goals. First, we needed to build a technology platform that would help us to serve both segments, and fulfill the demand that we’re seeing from both the MNOs and the enterprises. Second, and just as important, we needed to effectively manage and maintain our global service. Often, I’ve seen that companies either take the role of ‘technology vendors’ and sell their technology or use it for themselves to provide a service. We have always believed in the value of being a technology vendor and a service provider at the same time 

Throughout 2020, I spoke to MNOs and Enterprises regularly who told me that they believe in our vision. It’s clear that the demand is strong in both market segments, and both sides see that we’re going to deliver significant value as a result of this flywheel strategy. However, it became clear to us at the end of 2020 that we needed to accelerate to make it happen. We needed to push harder on getting our products ready, on selling globally, on building the technology and implementing it worldwide. We knew that we needed another partner.

Enter: Intel Capital.

From the start, we saw a synergy with Intel, who appreciated our unique strategy, who saw not only that we were looking to add value for the MNOs and the enterprises, but also that our tech stack was flexible enough to build one portfolio to serve both segments. All of our products and services can be used for both. 5G networks can serve MNOs or be used by MNOs for their own customers. Our Connectivity Management Platform is perfect for MNO needs, but large enterprises can consume it, too. Our global connectivity service and network is primarily for serving enterprises, but at the same time we’re seeing an increasing number of MNOs who are also using our connectivity service instead of building for themselves.

We immediately saw a potential partnership with Intel, who already had a strong vision for 5G. We met with two different business units, looking for ways that we could add value for one another with our products and services. Even at such an early stage, we got the confirmation that there was a path for a partnership, not just a one-time investment.

It always comes back to the people

Of course, the people have always, and will always, be the most important thing. We’ve been working closely with Noam Kaiser and Adi Caspi, and they’ve both been so supportive. They advocated for us, they truly believe in our vision, and they’re also fun to work with!

On top of that, and no less important, is the vote of confidence from our existing investors, who have also continued their commitment by investing again to contribute to our ongoing growth and success.

I always say that when you go on a date with someone, you might be impressed by them in those first few meetings, but you can’t really know someone until you commit to them and get married. Once you’re in the marriage – then you truly understand who someone is! The relationship with our investors is similar to that. We’ve now been with these investors, Dell Technologies Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, 83North, Saban Ventures and Arie Capital, for some time. They are part of our journey, they know us and understand our technology, they have seen our challenges and they have shared our successes. They are very honorable Venture Capitalists, and by making the decision to reinvest in our company at this stage, they reaffirm their confidence in floLIVE. This is truly so important to us, they are the best partners we could ask for and we are so very grateful.

So, there you have it. We are so excited to use this $15.5 million funding to strengthen our technology stack, upgrade our global network to 5G, and build a global SIM2Cloud offering, alongside staying true to our unique vision and strategy.

Here’s to the next chapter!

Read the full Press Release, here.