New Delhi-based telecom startup Wiom on Thursday said it has raised $17 million (around Rs 140 crore) in a mix of equity and debt as a part of its Series A funding round led by venture capital firm RTP Global.
YourNest, Omidyar Network India, Global Brain, Blume Founders Fund, Alteria Capital, Stride Ventures, Stride One and 9 Unicorns also participated in the round.
Wiom plans to use the fresh capital to expand its footprint to cities throughout India while investing in talent and distributed delivery architecture, the company said in a release.
“With the home broadband penetration in the country at a meagre 10% odd; we believe Wiom is uniquely positioned to capture this opportunity. They have innovated across the value chain and are seeing tremendous traction already,” said Nishit Garg, partner at RTP Global.
Wiom was founded by Satyam Darmora, Nishit Aggarwal, Ashutosh Mishra, and Maanas Dwivedi. The company says that it provides unlimited internet to middle and lower-middle-income households through its platform-led distribution model at affordable prices. Its customers can get unlimited internet starting at Rs 10.
“Air, Water, Food and the internet are the new essentials of modern life. Every individual in our country must be able to afford 24/7 unlimited Internet…We are confident of becoming the largest contributor towards the country’s target of 50 million PM-WANI (wi-fi access network interface) hotspots across the country,” said Darmora.
PM-WANI framework was launched by the government in December 2020. The scheme aims to provide affordable internet access to 500 million Indians over the next five years.
Meanwhile, RTP Global, which has invested in firms such as Cred, Rebel Foods, DeHaat, Delivery Hero, Practo and Mobile Premier League, among others, has recently launched its fourth vehicle sector-agnostic fund, with a corpus of $1 billion (Rs 8,204 crore).
The global investor is looking to invest in 20 Indian startups with a primary focus on seed and Series A rounds. Besides India, it will invest the corpus in countries in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. It is targeting areas like artificial intelligence, enterprise software, fintech, and e-commerce, among others, with this new vehicle.
