Meucci gets funding for Skype challenger that even works on 2G

Photo credit: Anthony Kelly.

Meucci, an app that provides free group calling even over 2G networks, has raised US$6 million in seed funding.

Making online calls on 2G sounds impossible, but the startup has figured it out.

Rubi Kizner, the CEO of Meucci, tells Tech in Asia today that the startup’s core focus is on emerging markets where people are going mobile-first. The team is unfazed by poor infrastructure in these markets, particularly slow 2G or 3G connections, as its tech can circumvent these problems.

Only the caller needs to have the app installed on his or her phone.

The startup, based in Israel’s tech hub, Tel Aviv, wants to bring the same simple experience that users enjoy on apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to the process of group calling. Factors such as call reliability and the speed of the networks have kept group calls from becoming popular.

There’s no limit to the amount of people the app can support for a group call and only the caller needs to have the app installed on his or her phone to initiate the conversation. The other participants will be called up over the phone network, kind of like when you pay to call someone’s phone from Skype. Rubi claims it’s “much more secure” than Skype.

“Since Meucci is the first group hybrid system, the system is actually choosing the right course of action for the users, therefore in cases where the internet is slow, the system automatically switches the channel to GSM,” says Rubi. That basically means it dials up the phone.

Groups can be set up either before or during a call, and an individual’s cellphone number is also their unique ID. Furthermore, there’s also the option of free online-to-phone calls.

$6 million is a sizeable seed funding round.

Meucci had its public launch only a few days ago. Rubi says it has been “growing very fast since,” but declined to give numbers. The app is completely free to use and will remain that way, he adds.

US$6 million is a sizeable seed funding round. It will be invested in developing other features and taking on more emerging markets that “struggle with little communication options.”

“Today, group calling is plagued by drop calls, people speaking over each other, and a bunch of other problems,” added Rubi in an emailed statement. “It’s not uncommon for friends, families, and business partners to be spread out all over the world and finding the right time and proper calling platform is already hard enough. We want to combat and solve this problem so distance has no meaning and you don’t have to think, just call.”

Meucci’s investors in this round are Moshe Hogeg’s Singulariteam (backed by Tencent and Renren), Dragon Ventures, Chinese investor Xu Li, and serial entrepreneur Alon Carmel (co-founder of JDate and Christian Mingle).