Honest Mobile

Idea

Introduction

Your phone has changed a lot in the last few decades. But mobile networks are still stuck in the dark ages.

You’ve been putting up with terrible customer support, annual price hikes, and crazy roaming charges for far too long.

9 million of you are unhappy with your signal in the UK.

And thanks to old technology built in the 90s, you’re still phoning call centres to make the simplest of changes to your plan.

And that’s why mobile networks are trusted even less than banks (yeh, we know!).

We knew there had to be a better way. Which is why we’re building a new type of network, using better tech to transform your user experience.

A better way also means a more sustainable way. By 2040, technology is set to be 14% of global emissions. We need to act now, which is why we baked sustainability into the very core of the business from day one.

Thousands of you are choosing Honest thanks to our refreshing customer experience, fairer pricing and our focus on sustainability and ethics.

Substantial accomplishments to date

In 2021 we raised £750k from an incredible group of angels, operators and funds. Since then, as a small team of 7, we’ve made lots of progress.

We’ve grown our user base 12x reaching an ARR of £700k. (Annualised figure based on monthly revenue performance from February 2023)*.

Our net Promoter Score is over 80 compared with the average of 16 for the UK’s big networks. We’re one of the UK’s top rated networks on Trustpilot and over 40% of our users would be ‘very disappointed’ if we no longer existed, which is what the top startups call “world class” product market fit.

*based on unaudited management accounts.

We’ve rebuilt the tech used to run a mobile network from scratch, giving customers instant notifications and more control through the Honest app which helps reduce our customer support costs too.

In 2022, we were one of the first networks to produce all of our SIMs from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.We’ve been Carbon Neutral since day one and are now proud to be having a Carbon Negative impact; removing double the CO2 we emit through high quality carbon removal projects including Biochar and Direct Air Capture. And last October, we were thrilled to be the UK’s most ethical mobile network by Ethical Consumer for the second year running (alongside Ecotalk network).

Monetisation strategy

Our revenue comes from recurring monthly SIM subscriptions from both businesses and consumers. We make a 30-40% margin on each SIM.

We’ve built a strong and loyal community with what we believe is an industry leading monthly churn of <2% (last 3 months). In turn, this results in a high LTV approaching £150, and a 1:3 CAC:LTV ratio (we make 3 times what we spend to acquire a customer).

Our new product, Smart SIM, gives users better UK coverage and free roaming on all your most important apps. We've built it to help further accelerate growth, increase LTV and reduce acquisition cost. Smart SIM is an eSIM that can be downloaded anywhere in the world, alongside your existing SIM, making it easier than ever to join Honest for a larger market outside the UK. We're also designing it to be a lower cost product with higher margins than our current UK SIMs.

We are currently aiming to launch the beta version of the eSIM in Q2, with a commercial launch during summer 2023.

Alongside Smart SIM, we’ll be looking to add refurbished phone contracts, opening up a new market segment. We also plan to introduce paid SaaS features such as burner numbers, better visual voicemail and parental controls.

Use of proceeds

The funds will be used over the next 24 months, with the aim of us reaching profitability.

We’ll look to grow from just under 4,000 to 50,000 live SIMs through product lead growth, increased acquisition spend and channel expansion (inc. comparisons sites).

We’ll invest in our tech platform, taking our customer experience to the next level and upgrading our app for global eSIMs. We’ll launch Smart SIM beta in Spring 2023 and commercially in Summer 2023.

We’ll grow our superstar team across engineering, marketing and support and continue working to establish ourselves as the world’s most sustainable and ethical mobile network.