Canada’s Koho launches in-app eSIMs with Boxo and Airalo
Canadian fintech Koho has incorporated a new eSIM feature into its money management app in collaboration with Singapore-founded start-ups Boxo and Airalo.
Koho launches eSIMs with Airalo and Boxo
The feature will allow Koho’s 1.7 million customers in Canada to purchase and activate eSIMs directly within its app.
Touted as an “affordable alternative” to traditional roaming fees, the offering leverages Airalo’s eSIM connectivity API to provide access to 200 mobile networks worldwide, and is powered by Boxo’s software development kit Miniapp.
Both start-ups previously collaborated on combining these capabilities into a white-label solution in August, helping “apps worldwide to launch eSIM services for their existing user base” and leading to its partnership with Koho this week.
Kaniyet Rayev, CEO and founder of Boxo, says that the rising synergies between telecommunications and fintech are “creating new opportunities for innovation”.
For Koho, founded in 2014 and based in Toronto, the addition of this new app feature comes amid a significant advancement in the fintech’s fundraising efforts.
Earlier this month, the company secured a $190 million capital injection, which consisted of $40 million in equity and $150 million in debt, and was led by existing investor Propelr Growth.
Drive Capital, TTV and BDC supported the round, while Rockefeller Capital joined as a new investor. The raise follows a $63 million round completed by Koho last year, as well as a $165 million Series D secured in 2022.
In a statement earlier this month, the fintech said the new capital would “fund growth, the expansion of Koho’s lending book and new innovative products, and continued progress towards a Schedule 1 bank licence”.
