Telecom Startup WIOM Raises $4 Mn In Seed Funding

Telecom startup WIOM has raised $4 Mn in a seed funding round led by YourNest and 9 Unicorn. The round also saw participation from other existing investors such as Auxano and Omidyar Network India.

WIOM will use the funding to scale its business, invest more on technical stack, and enhance its product offerings.

WIOM provides affordable and unlimited internet to middle and lower-middle income households. Essentially, it is a Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA) which authenticates users and connects them with their local access point of choice, after charging a specific amount. 

Speaking on the announcement, WIOM founder Satyam Darmora said, “We are in a hyper-growth stage and need to invest heavily to create a scalable tech stack to fulfil the increased demand for affordable internet. It is exciting to know that our vision aligns with incoming marquee investors. With their support and trust, we are confident that we’ll achieve our mission to serve 50 Mn households in the next 5 years.”

WIOM was earlier called I2e1. It was founded in 2015 by Satyam Darmora, Nishit Aggarwal, Maanas Dwivedi, Natraj Akella and Ashutosh Mishra. It rebranded itself as WIOM in 2021 with an aim to create more than 1 Mn Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI)-compliant hotspots across India.

The PM-WANI scheme aims to increase the proliferation of public Wi-Fi networks across the country. 

WIOM currently offers services only in Delhi but plans to expand across India. The startup claims to have more than 10,000 subscribers on its rolls and plans to scale up to 25X times in the next 12 months. 

WIOM also claims to be working on a blockchain-based model that will enable local hotspots owners to earn cryptocurrencies against ‘extra internet capacity’.

The startup competes with other players such as HFCL, WiFi Dabba, among others.

According to a report, 80% of the internet services across the globe are consumed as home internet. The data shows that India is severely underpenetrated in this regard, with a mere 7% of internet services consumed from the confines of home.