YFM Venture Finance invest further in Global SIM Card provider
May 2008
The Yorkshire and Humber Equity Fund (YHEF), the Regional Venture Capital Fund for the Yorkshire and Humber region, managed by YFM Venture Finance has invested a further £250,000 in York-based GO-SIM - a leading provider of prepaid global SIM cards for mobile phones.
Chris Fitzsimmons, YHEF investment manager, was first introduced to GO-SIM in early 2007. He commented, "Since our original investment, we have been impressed by GO-SIM’s progress. Having recently secured a key route to market with one of Europe’s leading travel companies, GO-SIM is well placed to exploit the market opportunity for travellers to make significant savings on calls from abroad."
David Agar, CEO of GO-SIM commented "Having YHEF onboard has enabled us to become one of the leading providers of smart, low-cost international mobile solutions. We’ve made a successful push into the US outbound traveller market, and are now looking for distribution into Asia. With an exciting product development road map ahead of us, the future is very interesting indeed".
YHEF first invested in GO-SIM in August 2007. Seven months on, the company has seen continued growth developing voice and messaging products, an increase in staff numbers and heavily invested in marketing increasing its customer base by 214%.
GO-SIM has a client base which includes the leading airport and airlines supplier, Alpha Retail, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, British Red Cross, Visa International and the leading US-based retailer, Best Buy. The global SIM supplier plans to role out partnerships with key strategic partners in the travel industry across the world.
Customers face expensive charges when using mobile phones outside the UK due to costly roaming charges. The GO-SIM Global SIM works in more than 140 countries and unlike standard UK network providers, incoming calls and texts are free in many countries, enabling travellers to save up to 85% on the bill that would normally await them.
To use GO-SIM, customers simply swap their existing SIM card with the GO-SIM Global SIM card each time they travel abroad.
YHEF is a £25 million Regional Venture Capital Fund which will invest in fast growing SMEs across the Yorkshire and Humber region, managed by YFM Venture Finance and part of the YFM Group. Investments can be up to £500,000 although any initial tranche of money would be to a maximum of £250,000.
Lawyers for YFM Group were Keeble Hawson and Hempson for GO-SIM.