Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Rebtel

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Type
  
International Calling

Website
  
www.rebtel.com

Stable release
  
* iPhone Android Windows Phone

Operating system
  
Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Microsoft Windows

Available in
  
English, French, Spanish, Arabic

Rebtel is a Swedish calling company founded in 2006 by Hjalmar Winbladh and Jonas Lindroth. Its services include international calling, messaging and mobile money delivered in apps for Android, iPhone and Windows Phone.

Contents

History

Rebtel’ founder, Hjalmar Winbladh, co-founded and spent 7 years as President and CEO of Sendit AB, taking the firm public before it was acquired by Microsoft for $127.5 million. Rebtel appointed Andreas Bernström, formerly COO of TradeDoubler, as CEO in September 2009. As of December 2013, the company has 75 employees and over 25 million users worldwide. Its revenue was US$ 95 million in 2013.

Rebtel

Rebtel allows its users to make low-cost or free international calls using its smartphone apps or landlines. Rebtel works on any phone without installing software or an internet connection.

SDK

Rebtel launched an SDK in September 2012, allowing independent developers to integrate voice calling and instant messaging in their apps. The Rebtel SDK currently supports app-to-app communication over data, such as 3G or Wi-Fi and uses the same backend as Rebtel’s own apps. Developers can decide how to handle user management, ringtones, calling screens and other aspects of the user experience.

Sendly

In December 2013, Rebtel launched Sendly, a new app that lets users top up the prepaid mobile phones of friends and family abroad.

Timeline

  • May, 2005 Rebtel is registered by Hjalmar Winbladh and Jonas Lindroth.
  • September, 2006 Rebtel raises Series A round of $20 million in external venture capital financing from Index Ventures and Balderton Capital.
  • October, 2009 Rebtel launches its iPhone app after a nine-month approval process with Apple.
  • June, 2010 Rebtel reports a 100% jump in revenue over the previous year, increasing revenue from $8 million to $16 million. The service also logs its one billionth minute in international calls.
  • January, 2011 Rebtel reports 9 million users, revenues of more than $40 million in 2011 and a revenue run-rate projected to hit $75 million by the end of year.
  • November, 2011 Rebtel is awarded the Swedish Innovation Award. Previous winners include music streaming service Spotify.
  • September 2012 Rebtel releases its SDK, allowing developers to integrate voice calling into their apps.
  • December 2012, Rebtel reports revenues of $80 million and 20 million users.
  • December 2013, Rebtel launches Sendly, a new service for transferring prepaid mobile credit internationally. Rebtel reports revenues of $95 million and 23 million users.

    • References

    Rebtel Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA