The Washington, D.C.-based company — founded by a former head of Palantir’s national security business who previously worked in the U.S. Army’s special forces — is releasing an open beta of its MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) mobile service, which comes in the form of a $99/month subscription plan. It has inked a partnership with Proton, the provider of encrypted e-mail, VPN, and cloud services; and it’s raised $30 million more in equity and debt funding.
The $30 million is broken down as $15 million in equity tacked onto its Series B from A*, Costanoa, Point72, and XYZ Ventures. Another $15 million is coming in the form of a debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank. This brings the equity part of its Series B to $55 million, with the original $40 million announced in April 2024 led by Andreessen Horowitz.
I guess this is one reason why Proton changed their structure so they can make such partnerships while still legally ensuring they cannot be taken over any VC or investor/other company.
Also, its using UScellular for its network. -isn’t this one of the worst cellular service providers?
Yea, if this is anything to go by they have pretty poor coverage. Though I think the price is pretty decent, and they did mention wanting to increase roaming options for better coverage in the future. Hopefully, some of that funding can go towards those type of deals.
The mobile carrier startup Cape is taking a novel approach to addressing the problem: It has built a service it says can provide a more secure, private alternative
Ah, sounds too good. How?
it doesn’t collect any data on you at all; even its website doesn’t have a cookie gate.
Deeply unserious journalism when the website does have a big ball of MixPanel tracker right there.
“No cookies” is the new “audit reports”. Folks, especially “tech” Journalists, really need to read those and/or probe further than blindly believe if there’s “no cookie” banners or if there’s a few “audit reports” sitting about, the service/app provider is golden. Sigh.
SilentCircle vibes. Had a dream team (ex iPhone execs, leading cryptographers and security researchers) and it went … silent no where.
Nowadays you see that with (former) well-funded, well-known cryptocurrency orgs & businesses (very capable teams) pivoting into privacy tech (ex: VPNs as they are profitable) or AI (because hype).
PG’s seen it & been bitten by it, may be will one day be wiser for it…
Interesting to see that Cape’s app was added to the Accrescent store. They’re definitely trying to carve out a space for themselves that most MVNOs have not/will not.
Found this new video about Cape. Rotating IMSI numbers is a really cool feature. What do you all think of this? And is Cape better than Phreeli or Mint or can Phreeli now do the same on their end?
I just watched it. I think that Cape looks pretty interesting and I like their simplicity of just having a single plan (albeit very expensive). The only minor concern I personally have is that I found out about the founder’s ties to a background in both Palantir and the US military. On the flip side, Cape seems to have been around longer than Phreeli, so they might be more credible for now until Phreeli gets put through its paces. A downside that I see is mainly the $99/month cost to use Cape’s service, which is quite high and matches the most top tier plans from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile here in the US. It was a cool tour and interview that he had with them though.
First out the door is a deal with Switzerland-based Proton to drive signups to the latter company’s premium (paid) offerings. Those who sign up to a Cape $99/month phone plan can pay $1 to add six months of Proton’s Unlimited plan, which includes encrypted cloud storage, VPN, expanded secure e-mail, and more.
Makes sense for Proton. Seems like they are betting they will end up with a ton of new subscribers.
I really don’t know anyone, including me, who is going to pay a hundred bucks for any subscription.
I can think of millionaires needing very high-security, or rich privacy enthusiasts. But I wouldn’t think this represent a lot of people. If you can afford to spend 100 bucks a month for a cell plan, the 10 bucks for Proton is probably not much for you anyway.
