A* and Andreessen Horowitz are lead
investors
Cape, a pioneering privacy-first mobile carrier, has raised $61M
in financing rounds led by A* and Andreessen Horowitz. XYZ
Ventures, ex/ante, Costanoa Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Forward
Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures also participated in the
financing. Cape will use the capital to build a nationwide mobile
network that provides premium wireless coverage which, unlike
traditional carriers, masks personal identifying information like
names, numbers, and locations.
“Telecom is one of the largest and most antiquated industries on
the planet,” said Kevin Hartz, General Partner of A*. “Cape’s
privacy-first architecture meets a growing need in the market for
secure communications across consumers, businesses, and
government.”
The financing announcement comes as top U.S. officials raise the
alarm on lax cybersecurity by the major telecommunications
carriers, which leave them vulnerable to compromise by foreign
actors. Hackers can use telecommunications networks to collect
personal information, pinpoint users’ locations, and plant spyware,
jeopardizing freedom of the press, human rights, and national
security. Russia’s use of cellular networks to hack NATO officials
and target Ukrainian troops has shown the relevance of these
vulnerabilities to modern conflict.
Cape’s founder and CEO, John Doyle, first recognized the
weaknesses of cellular networks as head of tech giant Palantir’s
national security business. He saw that the threat applies not only
to government organizations but also to every person who uses a
smartphone. Founded in 2022, Cape partners with leading public,
private, and academic research institutions to create a robust
cellular network that protects users from present-day cybersecurity
threats.
“These are not only life and death questions for our nation’s
defenders, but are also increasingly on the minds of everyday
people, whose phones are with them through nearly every moment of
their day,” said John Doyle, Cape CEO. “We are tackling an enormous
set of problems that exist due to the rise of smartphones and
mobile networks as a primary avenue to accessing the Internet. We
can’t leak what we don’t have. That’s privacy by design, and it’s
how we enable connection without compromise.”
People trust their phones to hold their most personal
information, but the moment their phone attempts to connect to a
cellular network, that information is exposed to potential
compromise. This vulnerability makes mobile networks gold mines of
identifying data for hackers to exploit. Telecom breaches leaked
the private information of more than 74 million customers in the
United States just last year.
Even when data is not hacked, it is routinely monetized in what
has become a multibillion-dollar industry. In 2020, the FCC levied
$200 million in fines against America’s four largest carriers for
selling user location data without adequate controls. Just months
ago, investigations revealed that authorities purchased trillions
of domestic phone records from a major US carrier as part of a
warrantless surveillance program.
In contrast, as one of the only independent, full-network Mobile
Virtual Network Operators in America, Cape is able to provide
premium cellular service without the privacy sacrifices inherent in
typical phone plans. Customers get best-in-class spam protection,
hardened account security, a stringent firewall, and malicious
signaling protection.
Cape will also provide superior reliability as the first
consumer cellular service to be built on top of UScellular’s
enterprise-grade multicarrier full MVNO Revolution infrastructure.
Combining 12 separate national and regional cellular networks, it
forms the country’s densest overlapping coverage to maximize
resilience. “We’re excited to work with Cape to deliver a wireless
experience that keeps people connected securely wherever they are,”
said Kim Kerr, senior vice president, enterprise sales and
operations for UScellular.
“UScellular has built a highly differentiated network for their
quickly growing industrial and commercial business. We are the
first to layer voice service on top of it, and are excited to offer
premium access on this unique, resilient network to our
subscribers,” said John Doyle, Cape CEO.
“Cape’s technology is an answer to long-standing, critical
vulnerabilities in today’s telecom infrastructure that impacts
everything from homeland security to consumer privacy,” said
Katherine Boyle, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “The team
is the first to apply this caliber of R&D muscle to rethinking
legacy telecom networks, and are well placed to reshape the way
mobile carriers think about their subscribers – as customers
instead of products.”
To learn more about Cape, visit www.cape.co.
ABOUT CAPE
Cape is a pioneering privacy-first mobile carrier built to
restore individuals’ control over their mobile identity. It
provides premium wireless coverage with minimal data collection and
a commitment to never monetize subscriber data. Customers get
best-in-class spam protection, hardened account security, stringent
firewall restrictions, and blazing fast nationwide 5G and 4G
coverage with the highest tower density in the country.
Cape is trusted by innovators in security and technology. The
company has raised $61M from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz,
A*, ex/ante, Point72 Ventures, XYZ Ventures, Costanoa Ventures,
Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures. Its research partners
include leading institutions in cybersecurity, such as Virginia
Tech, the University of Maryland, the Air Force Research
Laboratory, and others.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240418101671/en/
Caty Bleyleben CMAND caty@cmand.co