Germany-headquartered IoT MVNO 1NCE has claimed another record year, outrunning its 2023 total with eight million new cellular IoT connections in the first three quarters of 2024. The firm added seven million new “endpoints” (connected devices) in 2023, it said. It counts 30 million endpoints in 173 countries – from 23,000-odd customers in 52 countries – on its global MVNO network, as it stands. It has also expanded its management team to drive profitability and cost-savings, as well as expansion of its geographical, channel, and sales activities.
Curiously – presumably because of a calculation error (or some mis-reporting – 1NCE said in January it had posted a 33 percent jump in connections in 2023, versus 2022, to add five (not seven) million IoT connections to finish last year with around 20 million devices under management. The delta in its reported 2023 figures (around two million), quoted at the start and end of 2024, may be the difference between devices signed on its books and activated on its (virtual) networks. No matter; if the 2024 count is correct then it puts its net 2024 additions at eight million at least (possibly 10 million?).
Which would stand up 1NCE’s perennial line about being “one of the fastest growing companies in IoT”. Emboldened, 1NCE has also added four executives to its ‘c-suite’ team, with Ivo Rook, who joined as chief operating officer in 2021 after stints at Vodafone and T-Mobile, promoted to co-chief executive, alongside Alexander Sator, the company’s founder. A press statement lauded Rook’s leadership to make 1NCE a “truly global company in less than three years”. It has established regional centres in Cologne, Miami, Riga, São Paulo, Singapore, and Tokyo in the period.
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It has also added Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank (and “major network operators like”) as investors. Besides, the senior management team has expanded to include Sven Adler as chief financial officer, Arne Aßmann as chief strategy officer, Jennifer Haag as chief HR officer, and Nicolas Martinez-Fresno as chief sales and marketing officer. Adler will put “emphasis on generating the highest ROI and delivering the aggressive cost savings… for 1NCE’s continued rise into an industry leader”.
Aßmann has been with 1NCE since 2018; Haag joins 1NCE from T-Mobile and Verizon, variously; Martinez-Fresno, a veteran of Vodafone and Telefónica, joined 1NCE in 2022 to lead the company’s business expansion in Europe, and later in North America. Sator said: “Becoming a global brand demands the best and brightest leaders from across tech and we’re thrilled for elite talent like Arne, Jenny, Nicolas and Sven to be on the executive team. And I’m grateful to have Ivo as co-CEO – our uniquely complementary skill sets will continue driving 1NCE’s explosive growth.”