Braid, the Dutch embedded connectivity company formerly known as Next Communications, has raised a $38M (£28.4M) Series A led by Octopus Ventures, with KPN Ventures also taking part. The round, worth about €34M, is the company’s first outside funding and was announced alongside its rebrand to Braid.

Offering mobile connectivity has traditionally meant becoming a telecom operator or negotiating with carriers one by one. Co-founder and CEO Jignesh Dave knows the cost first hand. He says it took 18 months and about €500,000 to sell his first branded SIM card while running a mobile virtual network, and that the wholesale arm of one operator turned him down repeatedly along the way.

Braid’s answer is a single API that connects to more than 600 carriers in over 200 countries. Enterprises can add SIM and eSIM connectivity directly to their own products or launch a branded storefront without building a telecom stack. The company says a live trial takes about three minutes and a full launch as little as a week. Use cases include a travel app keeping customers online throughout a trip, or a bank giving users data on their commute.

The company, founded in 2023 by Dave, Vishal Dave and Mitesh Popat, serves about 90 enterprise customers across travel, fintech, clubs and communities, and telecoms. It says it is profitable with positive cash flow. Unlike rivals such as Airalo and Roamless, Braid sells only to enterprises. Popat, a former Citi executive and CFO at Flutterwave, is among the co-founders. Axios Pro reported that the company expects to raise a Series B once it hits certain revenue milestones.

Octopus Ventures led the round, with KPN Ventures, the investment arm of Dutch operator KPN, participating. Uthish Ranjan, a partner at Octopus, said the best infrastructure businesses “make something complex feel effortless”. Braid will spend the money on international expansion, growing its carrier network and building out infrastructure. The open question is whether brands will pay a platform for connectivity or keep buying it as a cheap add-on.

Sources