Roamless has raised $5mn in a seed funding round led by UAE-based Shorooq Partners, Roamless announced on June 13.

In December, Roamless initially raised $2.6mn from

• Amsterdam-based and Turkey-focused Revo Capital,

• Istanbul-based Paribu Ventures (launched in 2022 by Paribu, a cryptocurrency exchange launched in 2017, with an investment budget of $30mn),

• Finberg (the venture capital investment unit of Turkish conglomerate Fiba Holding’s small-cap lending unit Fibabanka) and

• Luxembourg-based Deba Ventures (led by Turkish investors, including Barbaros Ozbugutu (co-founder of fintech Iyzico)).

With the latest contribution by Shorooq, the company has closed its seed round.

“To date we raised $5m in total, including the $2.6mn that was announced in December,” CEO and co-founder Emre Demirel told bne IntelliNews.

Roamless is also planning additional funding rounds. At the moment, its plan is to be in the market for a Series A round in 2025 or early 2026.

Roamless (formerly Myne Technologies Inc.), a San Francisco-based company with a leadership team in Turkey, develops an e-SIM technology and a pay-as-you-go model.

Unlike traditional e-SIM solutions with expiring plans and high roaming charges, Roamless provides travellers with flexibility and accessibility, the company says.

The company was established in 2023 and it launched its public beta in October 2023. It was founded by Turkish entrepreneurs Ali Gazioglu, Asim Alp, Emre Demirel, Selim Aykut and Cengiz Oztelcan.

Roamless founders.

Chief product officer (CPO) Gazioglu and chief technology officer (CTO) Alp are co-founders of Linxa, a B2B telecom software company based in the UK and Turkey.

CEO Demirel is a former partner at Turkey-based private equity fund Turkven while chief experience officer (CXO) Aykut is a former director at Accenture (New York/ACN) Fjord and at ATOLYE Dubai.

Board member Oztelcan is a long-running telecom, information and communication technology (ICT) executive with various CEO roles held across the industry.

Roamless currently has more than 120,000 registered users on its platform, according to Demirel.

The venture arm of Paribu is among Roamless’ investors. At the moment, the company does not have an operational collaboration with Paribu.

However, their teams are exploring options for Paribu's 6mn customers. Roamless is also exploring collaboration options with many other consumer platforms.

Revo and Finberg are also among the most successful tech investors in the Turkish ecosystem. They have been investors in unicorns at early stages.

The e-SIM market was really born in 2018 after Apple started using e-SIM technology in its iPhone 11 model, Demirel said.

At the moment, Roamless thinks that 20-25% of all devices globally can support e-SIM.

That number will quickly approach 100% over the next 10 years, according to Demirel.

“Roamless marks our first investment in Turkey,” Mahmoud Adi, a founding partner at Shorooq, told bne IntelliNews.

Mahmoud Adi.

“We are actively looking at opportunities in Turkey, it is a market with great success stories and exits and we are excited about the potential of backing Turkish entrepreneurs in fintech, consumer tech and gaming,” he added.

When asked about whether they are currently in touch with any Turkish companies, Adi said: “As an investment firm, we see many opportunities every week and we get to pick the best fit.”

Shorooq, launched in 2017, is currently conducting its investments out of its $160mn Venture Capital Bedaya Fund II. It is focused on the Middle East and North Africa region while currently operating across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, Egypt, and Korea.

“We are focused today on helping the company at this stage, scale its operations across 150+ countries and to strengthen its partnerships across all telcos and ensure the delivery of a strong product to consumers around the world,” Adi also said, regarding expectations for the Roamless investment.