About Movirtu

Movirtu is enabling "Mobile for the Next Billion". We are the leading pioneer of Mobile Identity Management (MIM) solutions for wireless telecommunication service providers. Our patent pending technology redefines the mobile industry landscape by leveraging cloud infrastructure to link mobile identities to users rather than devices. Our award winning Cloud Phone™ solution enables service providers to cost-effectively serve new subscribers from rural poor communities, allowing people to access their mobile identity and information from any shared device without the need to own a phone or a SIM. 

By removing the limitation of managing mobile transactions and messages through a specific device or SIM, we enable service providers to offer business users and enterprises personalised services. Users can manage personal, business and social media persona on a single device. We work with some of the world’s largest mobile networks offering services to millions of subscribers.   

Market Overview

The company’s roots are in providing universal mobile telephony access to the over 1 billion users at the base of the pyramid in rural Africa and South Asia who live on less than $2 a day and borrow, rent or share mobiles. These people do not have a phone number or identity and have difficulty receiving calls, messages or mobile remittances. The current situation means they cannot access the same services as other users, and they also miss out on the privacy and independence a mobile phone can bring to a user.

Shared mobile users spend 5-20% of their income on mobile services but because they do not own a phone or SIM card, they switch between networks and devices to make outbound calls. Mobile service providers have had difficulty building a profitable business case to attract these subscribers onto their network, even without incurring the high cost of subsidising a handset, or even distributing SIM cards. 

The next billion Movirtu serves in developed markets are mobile subscribers who own 2 or more SIM cards, including 500 million subscribers who own 2 or more phones and over 200 million subscribers who own 3 or more SIMs. These people have complex and fragmented mobile identities across networks in different countries. They move constantly between modes: personal, business and social. 

While is a challenge for end users to manage, but also poses a serious business challenge for the integrity of the enterprise environment and for mobile carriers alike. Enterprises are concerned about managing the proliferation and security of mobile devices. CIOs want to manage control corporate users’ activity. Now that over-the-top-players offer low cost mobile VoIP and Wi-Fi voice offerings, service providers also risk losing the billing relationship with their subscribers.

Cloud Phone

By deploying the patent pending technology behind Cloud Phone, service providers can offer subscribers their own telephone numbers and identities without the need to sell devices or SIMs with every number. Subscribers can make and receive calls and messages from multiple accounts from a single device or anyone else’s phone in complete privacy, just like you or I can access email by logging in and out of our accounts on other people’s computers through a web browser. This enables carriers to:

- Attract new subscribers from rural communities at low cost: increase number of loyal subscribers from rural communities at a much lower cost than has been done before and enable up sell of other products.
- Up sell local and international numbers to existing subscribers and roamers: increase ARPU and gain loyalty across national boundaries.
- Allow enterprises to control and manage multiple identities and persona on single devices: service large enterprises enabling them to deploy user centric services on any device.
- Engage with over-the-top-players to give rich user experiences to subscribers: don't become a bit pipe but engage with social media players to offer services and experiences that can only be achieved with a deep level of network integration.

A Partner not a Supplier  

Movirtu goes far beyond a typical technology supplier relationship. We share our investment in rigorous business cases and market research, leading user interface design, market launch programs with carriers. We build relationships with NGOs and third parties to bring additional revenue and value to users. Finally, because our preferred business model is revenue share, we partner for the long term, from feasibility through to large scale implementation.