ParaFi Capital led a $40 million Series B fundraising round for OXIO, a telecom-as-a-service (TAAS) platform that converts mobile data into blockchain-based digital assets. According to OXIO CEO Nicolas Girard, the firm provides a white-label product that allows any brand to launch a mobile service and operate as a mobile operator for end-users or companies.
OXIO, Helium, GIANT, and other initiatives, is putting a crypto twist on non-financial uses like bandwidth and connectivity. Notably, it is also collaborating with major companies. Girard stated that the firm already has 15 customers in Mexico, including Grupo Bimbo, the country’s biggest bread maker, and Rappi, a popular food delivery app in the area that uses OXIO to give internet connectivity to its riders.
Ascend, Leydon, and CoinDesk parent company Digital Currency Group joined prior investors Multicoin Capital, Monashees, Atlantico Capital, and FinTech Collective in the Series B fundraising round. Girard said that the revenues would be used to accelerate OXIO’s operations in Mexico and extend its network to the United States and Brazil, as well as to strengthen the company’s product and technical teams in the United States and Mexico.
Girard said in an interview this week that integrations with telecom providers in the United States are “nearly done,” and that the business is working on integrations in Brazil, a process that typically takes five months. Current legislation in countries such as Brazil and Mexico, according to Girard, requires telecommunications or satellite carriers to grant access to firms such as OXIO.
Girar believes that mobile data prices must fall by 80% in order for all Latin Americans to be connected. “That is a jam that we are in, and the only way we can break it is to offer up access to the infrastructure to firms like us, in order to generate new possibilities and a new business model,” he continued.
OXIO secured $13 million in a Series A fundraising round headed by Brazilian venture capital companies Monashees and Atlantico Capital in November 2020. The business has raised a total of $65 million so far.
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