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Shaka Tel is a technology company.
Shaka Tel provides an embedded connectivity platform that empowers businesses and content creators to launch and manage their own branded mobile plans. This solution offers an end-to-end framework for delivering mobile services, including the seamless integration of SIM and eSIM technology, allowing clients to incorporate telecommunications into their existing offerings without complex operational overhead. The platform focuses on streamlining the process for companies seeking to broaden their engagement with customers through personalized mobile experiences.
The company was established with the insight that brands and content creators require innovative methods to enhance customer loyalty and generate new revenue streams. By enabling them to offer proprietary mobile plans, Shaka Tel addresses a burgeoning market need for direct-to-consumer telecommunications services, reflecting a strategic pivot towards embedded connectivity as a core component of brand strategy. Its inception appears to stem from a recognition of untapped monetization opportunities within existing customer bases.
Shaka Tel primarily serves brands and individual content creators aiming to deepen their community engagement and unlock additional income. The company’s vision is to facilitate a new era of direct mobile connectivity, where any entity can leverage telecommunications as a powerful tool for building stronger relationships and creating sustainable, recurring revenue streams. It positions itself as a foundational partner in enabling digital communities to thrive through integrated mobile services.
Shaka Tel has raised $1.0M across 1 funding round.
Shaka Tel has raised $1.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Shaka Tel has raised $1.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Shaka Tel's investors include Fred Soneya, Antler, Haatch, Purple Ventures.
Shaka (also known as Shaka Telecommunications t/a Shaka) is a London-based technology startup founded in 2023 that provides an embedded connectivity platform leveraging eSIM technology. It enables brands to instantly offer customized, branded mobile plans to consumers via a simple API and SaaS product, eliminating traditional barriers like high costs, lengthy setups, and legacy telco systems.[1][2][3][4] Shaka serves brands in sectors such as entertainment, retail, and fintech, solving the problem of monetizing customer relationships through mobile services that boost revenue, loyalty, and engagement—such as recurring subscriptions, bundled offers, and location-based messaging—while handling network services, payments, and support end-to-end.[1][3][4] The company emerged from stealth in early 2024 with €1 million ($1M) in seed funding led by Haatch, alongside Purple Ventures, Antler, and telco angels, and has already signed large brands while planning international expansion; it employs 11-50 people with under $5M in revenue.[2][4][5]
Shaka's founders—Jonas Jelinek (CEO, from Czechia, with experience founding a fiber broadband telco, working at BCG and Altman Solon, and leading strategy at fintech Teya), Charlie, and Eli (from Israel and the UK)—met during an Antler residency in London in 2023.[1][2] This international team of serial entrepreneurs brings decades of complementary expertise in telco, software engineering, and venture-building.[1][2] The idea emerged from recognizing telecom as the next legacy industry ripe for disruption after banking and insurance, targeting pain points like brands' inability to quickly launch mobile plans due to infrastructure access issues and multimillion-dollar timelines; they built a solution using eSIM innovation to enable one-click deployment.[1][2][4] Early traction included signing major brands pre-launch and securing seed funding shortly after forming, marking a pivotal exit from stealth in January 2024.[1][2][4]
Shaka rides the eSIM revolution disrupting the $3 trillion telecom value chain long dominated by traditional providers, enabling embedded connectivity akin to "banking-as-a-service" but for telco.[1][2][4] Timing aligns with rising brand-consumer proximity and demand for tailored services in entertainment, retail, and fintech, where mobile plans enhance loyalty amid legacy systems' decline.[1][3][4] Market forces like eSIM adoption, consumer shift to data-centric plans, and brands' push for recurring revenue favor Shaka, positioning it to fragment telco monopolies similar to fintech's impact on banking.[1][2] It influences the ecosystem by onboarding diverse brands, fostering white-label telco-as-a-service (competing with players like Gigs), and expanding globally to accelerate embedded mobile's mainstreaming.[4]
Shaka is primed for rapid scaling post-seed, with funding targeted at customer onboarding across entertainment, retail, fintech, and international markets, leveraging its founder expertise and early brand wins.[2][4] Trends like eSIM ubiquity, AI-driven personalization, and brand-owned services will propel growth, potentially capturing share in the massive telco disruption wave despite competition.[1][4] Its influence may evolve from niche enabler to ecosystem leader, empowering more non-telcos to own mobile monetization and redefine customer relationships—echoing Shaka's core promise of turning complex telco into a single API call.[1][3]
Shaka Tel has raised $1.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $1.0M Seed in January 2024.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1, 2024 | $1.0M Seed | Fred Soneya | Antler, Haatch, Purple Ventures |