FreedomPop gets $50 million financing to push its ‘free’ global hotspot

Freemium mobile telco FreedomPop has managed to secure $50 million in financing just months after a $30 million round to fund its continued global expansion.

At the same time the company has announced the launch of what it’s calling a global hotspot, which is essentially a roaming agreement that will allow its US and UK customers to use their FreedomPop minutes, texts and data across the whole of Europe, with parts of Asia and Latin America to come.

The core FreedomPop deal consists of 200 minutes, 200 texts and 200MB data per month at no charge, but with a £5 activation fee at the start. The freemium model is designed to upsell customers to more generous packages and to other premium bolt-ons. The global hotspot costs £10 for SIM-only or £50 for a mifi unit, but then the standard terms apply for minutes, data, etc. The prices are the same in dollars, so the UK gets a bad deal on the exchange rate as usual.

“FreedomPop has proven that new internet business models work in the telecom space and has developed the technology to scale it globally,” said Steven Sesar, FreedomPop COO. “This new financing not only validates our capabilities, but it also ensures that FreedomPop has the capital required to become a top 10 global service provider. The financing also supports our Global network launch, which is an exciting way to give consumers free Internet access across the world and eliminate roaming costs no matter where they are.”

FreedomPop was only created in the US back in 2012 but has really started to accelerate in the past year, launching in the UK last September and exceeding a million subscribers in total. It has now raised over $100 million in financing and will be under pressure from investors to ramp its international plans further this year.