Everphone raises $200M to grow 'phone-as-a-service'

It's a resounding vote of confidence in the "phone-as-a-service" business model that Everphone claims to have pioneered.

In a Series-C funding round, the German startup announced it had raised $200 million. It was led by Cadence Growth Capital, which became the company's biggest shareholder. Bloomberg reports that Everphone raised $65 million in equity and $135 million in debt.

Existing investors – Deutsche Telekom, AlleyCorp and signals Venture Capital (based in Berlin) – each plowed more money into the startup (although individual amounts were not disclosed). Deutsche Bank and the Phoenix Insurance Company provided green loans within a warehouse financing facility.

According to Bloomberg, the latest funding round values Everphone at $170 million. Jan Dzulko, CEO at Everphone – he founded the company in 2016 – has his eyes set on an IPO after using the fresh capital to grow the business further, both in Germany and abroad,

Circular economy

Everphone's "phone-as-a-service" offering involves leasing devices to business customers. The devices are then refurbished after a certain time and then rented out again to the same business customers. In this way, says Dzulko, devices' useful lifespans can typically stretch from under three years to around five years.

Leaning on the "circular economy" ethos, Everphone aims to reuse raw materials in whole or in part in order to save finite resources. According to the startup, refurbished smartphones with two lifecycles already save 58 kilograms of CO2.

Dzulko, again according to the Bloomberg report, says Everphone is partnered with eco-friendly phone-maker Fairphone, but it also buys and services phones from Apple and Samsung.

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"The demand for our model is not only unabated, it is even increasing rapidly," said Dzulko in prepared remarks.

"The more companies understand that they should only use as many devices as they really need, the more we save the environment and valuable resources."

Aside from expanding activities in acquiring new business customers, Everphone said the newly raised funds will go towards further internationalization, increasing personnel, product development and the growth of the active device fleet, which currently numbers over 100,000 devices.

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— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading