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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Rebtel say to its date? "You ring a bell.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rebtel
TypePrivate
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded2006
FoundersHjalmar Winbladh, Jonas Lindroth
HeadquartersStockholm, Sweden
Key people
  • Leo Kia – CEO
  • Johan Licke von Sydow – CFO
  • Carl-Johan Hedström – CPO
Websitehttps://www.rebtel.com

Rebtel is a Swedish telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The company provides international calling and mobile top-up services, primarily targeting migrant communities. Rebtel was founded in 2006 by Swedish serial entrepreneurs Hjalmar Winbladh and Jonas Lindroth, and operates through RebTel Networks AB.

History

[edit]

Rebtel launched in 2006 offering low-cost international calling by routing calls through local access numbers. The company later expanded into mobile applications, VoIP-based services, subscription calling plans, and mobile top-ups.

Between 2018 and 2023, Rebtel introduced additional services such as international money transfer and, in selected markets, last-mile delivery under the Mandao brand. Both initiatives were discontinued in 2025 as the company refocused on its core communications offering.

  • Rebtel Money Transfer was phased out in early 2025.[1]
  • Mandao was discontinued in May 2025.[2]

In April 2025, Rebtel appointed Leo Kia as CEO, signaling a strategic shift toward accelerating growth, modernizing the company’s product and technology stack, and deprioritizing dividends in favor of reinvestment.[3]

Services

[edit]

As of 2025, Rebtel offers the following services:

  • International calling (VoIP, local access numbers, subscription plans)
  • Mobile top up / Airtime recharge to prepaid mobile numbers worldwide
  • Unlimited calling plans
  • App-to-app calling
  • Local numbers in selected markets

Financial Information

[edit]

The most recently available financial statements for RebTel Networks AB (fiscal year 2024) report:[4]

  • Net revenue: SEK 1,354,440,000
  • Operating result: approximately SEK 115,861,000
  • Employees: 44 (2024)

Ownership / Investors

[edit]

Rebtel is privately held. Historically, the company has been backed by several venture capital firms, including:

  • Balderton Capital[5]
  • Index Ventures[6]


Management

[edit]

Rebtel's principal owners are European London-based venture capital funds Balderton Capital and Index Ventures.[7] Its management team consists of the following people:

  • Erik Olofsson – Chief Executive Officer
  • Svante Pagels – Chief Commercial Officer
  • Anna Skallefell – Chief Financial Officer
  • Jude Mukundane – Chief Technology Officer

Products and services

[edit]

Rebtel

[edit]

Rebtel provides low-cost or free[8] international call services. Its service was first available as an intermediary service accessible by dialing a particular phone number but is now available through iOS and Android apps with a combined download count totaling over 10M users.[citation needed]

Mobile top-up money transfer

[edit]

Rebtel's tech platform supports money transfer in the form of mobile top-up, in which users can transfer credit to others by mobile phone a practice common in parts of the world with unreliable or nonexistent financial systems. In early 2018, the company launched Nauta for the Cuban community.

Activist program (Rebtel Activista)

[edit]

Rebtel's Activist program was launched in 2016 as a pilot in Miami, Florida, enabling anyone to sign up to become a Rebtel reseller through the independent Activist app. Since the launch, the Activist program has expanded to Houston, Texas.[9] Over 10,000 people have joined the program.[as of?][10]

Beyond Borders magazine

[edit]

In late 2017, Rebtel launched and published its first edition of Beyond Borders, an online magazine and community that curates and creates content and journalism for international migrants and immigrants.[11]

SDK

[edit]

Rebtel launched a software development kit (SDK) in September 2012, allowing independent developers to integrate voice calling and instant messaging in their apps.[12] The Rebtel SDK currently supports app-to-app communication over data—such as 3G or Wi-Fi—and uses the same backend as Rebtel's own apps. Developers can decide how to handle aspects of the user experience, such as user management, ringtones, and calling screens.

Sendly

[edit]

In December 2013, Rebtel launched Sendly, an app that lets users top up the prepaid mobile phones of friends and family abroad.[13]

History

[edit]

Hjalmar Winbladh co-founded and spent seven years as president and CEO of Sendit AB, taking the firm public before it was acquired by Microsoft for US$127.5 million in 1999.[14] Rebtel appointed Andreas Bernström, formerly COO of TradeDoubler, as CEO in September 2009. In late 2015, Bernström left the company and was succeeded by Magnus Larsson.[15] In 2014, a group of former executives from Tele2—a telecommunications company owned by Swedish investment company Kinnevik—approached the company's owners with a proposal for a shift in strategy.

Following a brand overhaul, a product strategy shift to a subscription model and flat-rate pricing, and the launch of an independent work program (Activist), the company experienced a turnaround: it grew 40% after one year and reached a revenue of $95 million in 2017.[16][17] CEO Magnus Larsson told Thomson Reuters in 2017 that he had no plans to make the company public.

In 2020, Rebtel posted revenue above $150 million[18] and seemed on track to exceed $200 million in 2021, mostly boosted by communication needs during COVID-19 lockdowns. In 2021, Rebtel split with Majority, a fintech with the aim of solving banking needs for immigrants. Rebtel then took on new management and has since positioned itself as a marketplace for the global immigrant population's cross-border communication and remittance needs.

Timeline

[edit]
  • May 2005: Rebtel is registered by Hjalmar Winbladh and Jonas Lindroth.
  • September 2006: Rebtel raises Series A round of US$20 million in external venture capital financing from Index Ventures and Balderton Capital.[19]
  • October 2009: Rebtel launches its iPhone application after a nine-month approval process with Apple.[20]
  • June 2010: Rebtel reports a 100% jump in revenue over the previous year, increasing revenue from $8 million to $16 million. The service also logs its one billionth minute in international calls.[21]
  • January 2011: Rebtel reports 9 million users, revenues of more than $40 million in 2011, and a revenue run-rate projected to hit $75 million by the end of the year.[22]
  • November 2011: Rebtel is awarded the Swedish Innovation Award. Previous winners include music streaming service Spotify.[23]
  • September 2012: Rebtel releases its SDK, allowing developers to integrate voice calling into their applications.[24]
  • December 2012: Rebtel reports revenues of $80 million and 20 million users.[25]
  • December 2013: Rebtel launches Sendly, a new service for transferring prepaid mobile credit internationally. Rebtel reports revenues of $95 million and 23 million users.[13]
  • January 2016: Rebtel appointed Magnus Larsson as CEO and communicated the goal of becoming the primary app for international calling (similar to WhatsApp for texting).[26]
  • April 2017: Rebtel says to Thomson Reuters that it seeks a $20 million "cash injection for growth."[27]
  • August 2017: Rebtel Activist's independent work program fuels rapid US market growth; the CEO claims a 20% growth target for 2017.
  • December 2017: Rebtel launches an online magazine for migrants and international nomads worldwide.[28]
  • April 2018: Rebtel announces it has closed its financing process, securing close to $20 million. Now, it aims to invest 130 million Swedish kronor in developing banking products and/or acquire a neo-bank to speed up the execution of the company's new strategy.[29]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Rebtel Money Transfer Service Discontinuation". Retrieved 2025-12-03.
  2. ↑ "Mandao Service Discontinuation". Retrieved 2025-12-03.
  3. ↑ Johansson, Erik Wisterberg (2025-03-27). "Leo Kia blir ny vd på Rebtel: "Ingen vill ha utdelning"". Breakit. Retrieved 2025-12-03.
  4. ↑ "RebTel Networks AB – Financial Information". Bolagsfakta. Retrieved 2025-12-03.
  5. ↑ "Balderton Capital Investment Portfolio – Rebtel". Archived from the original on 2015-05-09. Retrieved 2025-12-03.
  6. ↑ "Rebtel secures funding from Index Ventures and Benchmark". Nordic9. Retrieved 2025-12-03.
  7. ↑ "RebTel Owners AB - Befattningshavare". www.allabolag.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  8. ↑ "Call Rates". Archived from the original on 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  9. ↑ MacBride, Elizabeth. "A Swedish Upstart Takes On WhatsApp, Reaching $95M In Revenue". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
  10. ↑ "An App to Help Migrants Phone Home". Bloomberg.com. 2017-10-12. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  11. ↑ "New 'Beyond Borders' Pub Connects Immigrant Populations". Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  12. ↑ "Give your app a voice". Rebtel. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  13. 1 2 Crook, Jordan (16 December 2013). "Rebtel Launches Sendly, A Money Transfer App For Topping Up Pre-Paid Phones". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  14. ↑ "Microsoft Announces Offer To Acquire Sweden's Sendit". The Wall Street Journal. May 13, 1999.
  15. ↑ "Rebtel startar om – ska bli ett Whatsapp för internationella samtal". digital.di.se. 28 January 2016. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  16. ↑ "Rebtel blir fintechbolag: "Vi tittar på att köpa en neobank"". digital.di.se (in Swedish). 18 April 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-08-18. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  17. ↑ "Så lyckades han vända svenska techbolagets fall - genom att ifrågasätta allt". Veckans affärer (in Swedish). Archived from the original on May 29, 2018. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  18. ↑ "RebTel Networks AB - Företagsinformation".
  19. ↑ "Rebtel Snags $20M First Round". Red Herring. September 25, 2006. Archived from the original on 2 February 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  20. ↑ "Apple Gives Green Light To Mobile VoIP iPhone App From Rebtel" (Press release). Rebtel. October 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 5, 2009.
  21. ↑ "Rebtel Makes International Calling Free With New Android App" (Press release). Rebtel. June 24, 2010.
  22. ↑ "Rebtel Aims at Skype With Free International Calling on BlackBerry" (Press release). GigaOm. January 14, 2011. Archived from the original on January 14, 2011.
  23. ↑ "The Innovation Award 2011" (Press release). AF Consult. November 28, 2011. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012.
  24. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (24 April 2013). "Rebtel Takes On Twilio, Launches Free VoIP SDK For iOS And Android App Makers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  25. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (19 December 2012). "Nipping At The Heels Of Skype, VoIP Provider Rebtel Passes 20M Users, $80M In Sales And A 2-Year Streak In The Black". TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  26. ↑ "Rebtel startar om – ska bli ett Whatsapp för internationella samtal". digital.di.se. 28 January 2016. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
  27. ↑ "Swedish telco Rebtel seeks $20 mln cash injection for growth". U.S. Reuters. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
  28. ↑ "New 'Beyond Borders' Pub Connects Immigrant Populations". Retrieved 2018-04-30.
  29. ↑ "Rebtel blir fintechbolag: "Vi tittar på att köpa en neobank"". digital.di.se. 18 April 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-08-18. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
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