Dijon – January 14, 2015
Opencell, the startup behind the world’s first open source carrier-grade billing software solution, announced today having raised 650 000 euors in seed funding from Xavier Niel’s Kima Ventures, from Cap Innov’Est, a regional venture fund based in Eastern France, from Awys, the personal fund of Eric Durand-Gasselin, the founder of French alternative telco provider Afone, from the regional business angel network Bourgogne Angels and from several other business angels based in France and the United States. The funding, leveraged by additional R&D and debt financing of 600 000 euros received from BPI France, the French public investment bank, will be used to expand Opencell’s operations, sales, product development and marketing operations.
Since its initial version released in 2007, Opencell’s billing solution has gradually evolved into the leading open source alternative to traditional carrier-grade billing solutions. Covering the entire consume-to-cash process including mediation, rating, charging, invoicing and AR management, it is a robust, natively multi-tenant solution with rich out-of-the box customization possibilities that can be installed on premise or the preferred cloud of its customers.
Its cost-effectiveness and flexibility make Opencell’s solution uniquely positioned to address the partial or complete replacement of legacy billing systems used by telco or utilities operators as well as the growing need for subscription or usage-based billing of operators launching digital services in cloud infrastructure, software, health, banking, media, transport etc.
Opencell’s solution is currently live or being deployed with ten clients in France and Western Europe and has been referenced by major IT integrators interested in Opencell’s disruptive approach.
“Opencell’s innovative open source model has the potential to disrupt a huge market by proposing a lower cost, more flexible, alternative to traditional multi million-dollar billing systems. By choosing Opencell, companies will be able to avoid the vendor lock-in that goes with traditional billing systems.”, said Xavier Niel, chairman of Iliad, a leading French telco, and investor in Opencell through Kima Ventures, his wholly-owned VC investment firm.
“Our open source billing solution is challenging the industry incumbents with its comprehensive end-to-end functionalities and innovative open source business model. This round of funding will be used to accelerate our product road map, bring world-class quality assurance and support to our enterprise customers and reinforce our sales and marketing effort as we continue to develop awareness of our solution.”, added Opencell Software CEO and co-founder David Meyer.
About
Opencell
Opencell was founded in March 2015 by several senior IT entrepreneurs to develop, support and accelerate worldwide deployment of Opencell, the world’s first open source carrier-grade convergent billing system. https://opencellsoft.com
Contact: ethan.beardsley[at]opencellsoft.com
About Kima Ventures
Kima Ventures was created in 2010 by Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad-Free to finance innovative companies worldwide. https://kimaventures.com
Contact: contact@kimaventures.com
About Cap Innov’Est
Cap Innov’Est is a 36M€ French regional seed fund investing in high-tech startups based in Alsace, Franche-Comté and Burgundy. It is backed by the French “National Seed Fund” (“ Fonds National d’Amorçage “), BPI France), the three regions (Alsace, Franche-Comté and Burgundy), SAFIDI (EDF Group), the banks “Caisses d’Epargne” from Alsace and Burgundy/Franche-Comté, the bank BNP Paribas et CIFC.
Cap Innov’Est is managed by Alsace Capital in partnership with Invest PME (Siparex Group).
Contact: laurent.saccucci[at]capinnovest.eu
Awys
Awys is the investment fund started by Eric Durand Gasselin, the co-founder of alternative telco provider Afone. It provides financing and support to innovative entrepreneurial projects.
BFC Angels
BFC Angels is a non-profit organization regrouping private individuals investing in innovative, high-growth companies based in the Burgundy and Franche-Comté region. http://www.bfcangels.com/
Contact: laure.taiclet[at]bfcangels.com
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