- Braid, formerly Next Communications, has closed a $38 million Series A round led by Octopus Ventures, with KPN Ventures also investing.
- The company says it’s profitable and that this is its first time raising money from outside investors.
- Braid’s API connects to over 600 carriers in over 200 countries and is used by nearly 90 enterprise customers.
The wholesale arm of a mobile operator turned down Jignesh Dave for nine days running. It took him 18 months and half a million euros to sell his very first branded SIM card.
Braid, formerly Next Communications, has now raised a $38 million Series A, led by Octopus Ventures, with KPN Ventures also on board. The Hague-based startup claims it’s profitable and has positive cash flow.
The funding will fund international expansion, carrier network growth, and infrastructure build-out to further cement its position in the embedded connectivity space.
From wholesale rejection to a single API
“After seven years running a mobile virtual network, I realised we weren’t really selling SIM cards. We had built the infrastructure that makes connectivity accessible to everyone. Amazon built AWS to power its own business and found it could power everyone else’s, and it was the same for us. Today a business can start in three minutes. And when brands make connectivity part of their customer experience, they unlock something far more valuable: stronger relationships, greater loyalty and new revenue,” said Dave.
He co-founded Braid in 2023 with Mitesh Popat, who spent 18 years at Citi, including as CFO for the MEA region. He was then CFO at Flutterwave, the African payments company, before moving into a strategic adviser role.
The company makes that process much simpler with a single API that connects your app to over 600 carriers in more than 200 countries. You can add SIM and eSIM connectivity to your product and/or launch a branded storefront without needing an engineering team. Braid says a live trial takes just 3 minutes, and a full mobile launch can take as little as a week.
A traveller booking a flight could stay connected to the airline or travel agent throughout the trip. A bank might give you data as you’re commuting, and a sports fan overseas could keep watching the games.
Braid says it serves about 90 enterprise customers across travel, fintech, clubs and communities, and telecoms. They see themselves as a platform that enables brands to provide connectivity rather than as a connectivity provider themselves.
Competition is heating up in embedded connectivity
Braid isn’t the only company to offer connectivity as a feature. Airalo, founded in 2019, has over 20 million users and hit a $1 billion valuation in July 2025, having raised almost $287 million to date. Meanwhile, Roamless raised a $12 million Series A in December 2025, led by Rasmal Ventures, and plans to enable airlines, travel agencies, financial institutions, and superapps to incorporate its connectivity.
Unlike rivals, Braid works exclusively with enterprise customers.
“Connectivity is core to everything we do at KPN and with KPN Wholesale we are a very active player on the global sponsored roaming market. Braid has built an impressive platform enabling enterprises to easily embed connectivity into their products through a single API, reducing complexity and accelerating time-to-market,” said Reinout van Ierschot, executive vice president of KPN Wholesale.
Uthish Ranjan, partner at Octopus Ventures, added, “The best infrastructure businesses make something complex feel effortless. Jignesh and the Braid team have taken an industry built around long negotiations and fragmented systems and created a materially simpler way for businesses to embed connectivity into the products their customers already use.”
Banks are already in the market. Tech Funding News reported in August 2025 that Monzo had launched in the eSIM space. That raises the question for Braid: will brands that can build connectivity themselves opt to pay a platform to do it?
The market could be a huge opportunity for Braid. Counterpoint Research forecasts that over 9 billion devices with eSIM and similar technology will ship between 2024 and 2030. By 2030, nearly 70% of all cellular devices shipped are expected to be eSIM- or iSIM-enabled.
If Braid is profitable, it can choose its own growth rate. The key question is whether the brands will pay a platform for connectivity or continue buying it as a value-added service from the cheapest provider.
