Deal highlights

• App providing smartphone numbers on demand in seven countries with more to come
• Early traction: 250,000+ registered users
• Team worked at IBM, Netflix, Dailymotion, and in the cloud communication industry
• Voted Product of the Day and nominated Product of the Year 2017 on ProductHunt
• Featured by Apple in the App Store

Freelancers need a second line, not a second phone.

 

A business phone line from a mobile carrier costs between 40-100 USD per month in the US, and the inconvenience of carrying two phones often discourages entrepreneurs to invest in a phone line dedicated to their business.

Privacy: Keeping your personal data private

Sharing your personal phone number and any other personal data online is not safe. Your number, if made publicly available, can be spammed, or even used to gain access to your web services and bank accounts via social engineering techniques and hacking.

Ring4 – a second phone line in seconds

Ring4 lets users manage several phone numbers on a single smartphone, texting and calling directly from the Ring4 app.

Smartphone numbers are real phone numbers

The Ring4 numbers are real mobile phone numbers. Ring4 has entered into partnership agreements with telecommunications providers to offer phone numbers in seven countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Austria.

Text and calls over data and Wi-Fi

Ring4 comes as an extra telecommunication layer on the smartphone. Users can add a new phone number independent from their existing SIM card. The Ring4 app works over Wi-Fi or data (3g/4g/LTE). Calls and texts neither use the carrier plan minutes nor the text allowance. 

World phone

By design, the Ring4 numbers can be used anywhere in the world, as they are operating 100% over data. Ring4 also offers cheap international outbound calls in 25+ countries and is currently expanding its coverage to make cross-border communications seamless.

Native experience

Ring4 is integrated natively with the phone operating system (OS). The user experience of receiving calls or texts via Ring4 is the same as with a traditional mobile carrier. There is no barrier for adoption.

A lightweight BYOD solution for small businesses and freelancers

Ring4 offers freelancers an easy and affordable option to get a phone number for their business. Ring4 also lets small businesses provide employees with a work number on their personal phone. This market trend is known as bring your own device (BYOD).

Traction

• 250,000+ registered users since the company launch
• Revenue increased by 150% in the 12 months after Ring4 launched
• Sales per installation* increased from $1.4 to $5.05 since the Ring4 launch

*An installation is counted when the app is opened for the first time on the device it was downloaded into, provided the device has an active internet connection and has opted into providing analytics to the developer.

• Top 100 grossing US Utilities in the App Store US and UK (6/12/18) 

•  Featured on the Apple App Store

• Voted Best Product on Product Hunt at launch in March 2017

Market

• Freelancers make up 34% of the US workforce, and this number is expected to reach 50% by 2020. Ring4 is addressing this market by providing an affordable lightweight solution for business phone lines.

• The sharing economy has grown to 70M+ users in the US, such as those using Airbnb and Uber. Ring4 addresses this market by providing a solution to protect the personal phone numbers of these users. This also protects users of online marketplaces, such as Craigslist. 

Monetization model

• Ad revenue sponsoring the free version with an offer wall for users to earn free credits
• Pre-paid credits to keep the phone line active, make calls, and send texts
• Unlimited monthly plans, including unlimited texts, calls, and the phone line

Competition

Ring4 is uniquely positioned to answer the market need for a light solution to a second phone line and expand internationally.

Previous Investors

Ring4 (yourVirtualSIM Inc.) raised $225,000 from four investors in the first half of 2018.

Tony Lam - Investor and advisor at Ring4

“I am excited about the 100x potential of smartphone numbers and new cloud communications technologies developed by Ring4. It’s time for the traditional telecommunication industry to be disrupted.”

Roadmap

Ring4 v1 was a success: We’ve collected a ton of valuable customer feedback and are integrating it into the design of an upcoming Ring4 v2 to be unveiled during fall 2018.

• March 2017: Launched Ring4 
• $225K raised to date from angel investors and funds
• Fall 2018: Launch Ring4 Android and Ring4 v2
• 2019: Raise VC round 1M USD+ to accelerate sales and expand internationally

If we reach our stretch goal of $500K, we will hire an extra developer, a marketer, and a salesperson to accelerate our growth in 2019.

Founders and team

The Ring4 team is led by Alex Botteri, a long time contributor to the cloud communication industry in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a background in software engineering (MS degree of Computer Science from ESIEE Paris) and 10+ years experience in various business development positions at IBM and Tyntec, Alex has two obsessions: disrupting the telecommunication space and building a sleek product that scales.

Alex Botteri - Founder

MS Computer Science, 10+ years in Biz Dev. Previously Worked at IBM and Tyntec (Cloud Communication API).

Florian Lecluse - iOS dev

Software engineer specialized in Objective-C and Swift. Previously worked at TextMe Inc.

Harold Thethiot - Full Stack Engineer 

Software engineer. WebRTC specialist. Previously worked at Netflix and Netvibes. Created the Sylaps conferencing solution.

Illia Strikhar - UI/UX design

UX/UI designer with a passion for crafting state-of-the-art online products with the purpose of helping people.

Two senior developers have joined the core team: Florian Lecluse and Harold Thetiot, formerly at Netflix and DailyMotion. Ring4 also counts a top-notch designer Illia Strikhar and a part-time dev-ops as part of the team and is actively recruiting.

Join Ring4

Let’s build a new generation of virtual mobile operator together