Truely has closed a $2.8 million Seed Round led by 1982 Ventures, a Singapore-based investor focused on fintech and enterprise AI in Southeast Asia. The round also included participation from several angel investors with backgrounds in mobile telecommunications and consumer travel technology.
The capital will fund three areas: expanding direct carrier agreements in Asia-Pacific, building out the B2B API platform for travel agencies and booking engines, and growing the customer support infrastructure to match anticipated user growth across the region.
Why 1982 Ventures
1982 Ventures has backed companies operating at the intersection of financial infrastructure and mobile connectivity — a precise fit for what Truely is building. Their portfolio companies operate across Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore, giving Truely direct access to a network of potential distribution partners throughout ASEAN.
"The consumer roaming problem is not a technology problem — it's an access problem," said Simon Landsheer, CEO of Truely. "The carriers have the infrastructure. The eSIM standard exists. What's missing is a clean product layer that makes the whole thing work without a manual. That's exactly what we built."
1982 Ventures partner Marcus Chen added: "We looked at several eSIM providers before committing to Truely. What distinguished them was the activation architecture. Most competitors require manual APN configuration or a support ticket to get started. Truely activates automatically at the carrier handshake — that operational difference translates directly to customer satisfaction scores."
The Problem Truely Solves
International data roaming remains one of the most complained-about expenses in business travel. A week-long trip to Japan with a US carrier can generate a roaming bill between $150 and $400 depending on data usage, even with many carriers' international plans. Corporate travel managers frequently describe the billing reconciliation as one of their most time-consuming monthly tasks.
Consumer travelers face a similar problem with less institutional support. The common workarounds — buying a local SIM at the airport, relying on hotel Wi-Fi, or hunting for a café with a password on the chalkboard — all involve friction that a traveler with a fully configured eSIM simply does not experience.
Truely's model addresses this by letting users purchase a plan before departure, receive a QR code by email, and install the eSIM in under two minutes on any compatible device. When the device connects to a local network at the destination, the plan activates automatically with no further action from the user.
What the Funding Enables
The $2.8M will be allocated across three workstreams over the next 18 months:
Carrier network expansion: Truely currently has bilateral agreements with operators in 100+ countries. The funding will add an estimated 30 additional carrier agreements, with priority given to markets in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa where eSIM penetration is growing fastest relative to existing supply.
API platform development: A significant portion of the round is earmarked for the Truely B2B API — a REST interface that lets travel agencies, corporate booking platforms, and airline apps embed eSIM delivery directly into itinerary confirmation emails. A traveler books a flight, receives a confirmation, and the confirmation contains an eSIM QR code for the destination. No separate app download. No separate account creation. The integration requires a single JSON webhook configuration on the partner side.
Support infrastructure: Truely's current 24/7 support team handles approximately 300 tickets per day with a median first-response time of 8 minutes. The headcount expansion funded by this round will extend that response SLA to cover peak usage periods during major holiday travel windows.
The eSIM Market in 2025
GSMA Intelligence forecasts that eSIM-capable devices will represent more than 60% of all smartphones shipped globally by the end of 2025, up from roughly 30% in 2022. Apple's decision to ship US iPhone models without a physical SIM card slot starting with iPhone 14 accelerated device-side adoption significantly. Android adoption, led by Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy Ultra lines, has followed a similar curve.
The supply of affordable travel eSIM plans has not kept pace with device-side adoption. Most existing providers operate with a limited carrier network, require manual setup, or cap data at thresholds that make video calls impractical. Truely's positioning — unlimited data, automatic activation, multi-region coverage — targets precisely the gap between what devices can do and what current products actually deliver.
Southeast Asia as a Launch Pad
Singapore serves as Truely's operational base for a specific reason: the city-state has the highest per-capita international travel frequency in Southeast Asia, and a disproportionate share of regional business travel originates from Singapore's Changi Airport. The 1982 Ventures network also provides introductions to regional telcos that could accelerate carrier agreements in markets where direct outreach would otherwise take 12 to 18 months.
The ASEAN travel corridor — Singapore to Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Ho Chi Minh City — represents a high-frequency, short-haul travel pattern that generates significant eSIM demand. Business travelers making these routes two or three times per month are exactly the users who benefit most from a multi-region plan rather than purchasing a new eSIM for each trip.
What Comes Next
Truely expects to launch the B2B API in public beta by Q3 2025, with three travel agency partners already committed to pilot integrations. The first of these is a Singapore-based corporate travel management company with an active client base of approximately 200 enterprise accounts.
A Series A raise is anticipated for early 2026, contingent on API platform traction and user growth milestones. The Series A would fund geographic expansion into Latin America and North Africa, where Truely's carrier relationships are currently limited.
For travelers, the immediate benefit is simple: better coverage in more countries, with the same activation experience that has driven Truely's current user satisfaction ratings. Plans start at $4.99 per day, with weekly and monthly options available at proportionally lower rates.