Cape, a privacy-focused mobile carrier, has raised $100 million in a Series C funding round co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and IVP, with participation from 01 Advisors, 137 Ventures, Definition, and Fifth Down Capital. The new funding brings the company’s total capital raised to $191 million as it looks to expand its secure mobile connectivity platform across government, enterprise, and consumer markets.
Founded in 2022, Cape is building a telecommunications network designed to address structural privacy and security vulnerabilities in traditional mobile carriers. Unlike most mobile virtual network operators, which resell services from larger carriers, Cape operates its own mobile core and SIM infrastructure while leasing access to physical towers. This approach allows the company to embed privacy protections directly into the network layer.
The company’s platform includes features such as Identifier Rotation, which changes SIM identifiers daily to reduce persistent tracking, and Secondary Numbers, enabling multiple phone numbers on a single SIM. These capabilities are aimed at protecting users ranging from national security professionals and enterprises to journalists, activists, and privacy-conscious consumers.
Cape positions its offering as a response to longstanding security challenges within the telecom industry. Major carriers have faced high-profile breaches and regulatory scrutiny, including incidents that exposed sensitive user data and location information. The company argues that these risks stem from foundational issues in legacy network infrastructure rather than problems that can be solved through apps or add-on services.
With its latest funding, Cape plans to accelerate adoption of its network across public and private sectors while continuing to invest in research and development. The company’s service is already available nationwide in the United States, marking a significant milestone in its rollout.
Investors view Cape as a rare infrastructure play in a market long dominated by a small number of incumbents. By building its own telecom stack rather than relying on resale models, the company aims to offer a fundamentally different approach to mobile connectivity centered on privacy and security.
KEY QUOTES:
“Cell phone networks track everywhere you go, every app you use, every person you call or text. So when they’re compromised, it leads to some of the most sweeping and damaging violations of both national security and individual privacy in history. There’s no app, no add-on that fixes problems inherent in the underlying cellular network itself, so we’ve redesigned a telco from scratch to close this gap.”
John Doyle, CEO of Cape
“The mobile carrier market has been effectively frozen for decades, dominated by a small number of incumbents running legacy infrastructure. Cape is the first company we’ve seen that is willing to challenge that foundation , not as a reseller, but as a true infrastructure builder. By operating its own mobile core and embedding privacy at the network layer, Cape is building the inevitable future of secure mobile infrastructure.”
Saanya Ojha, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures
“It’s rare to see a product with such universal value across government, enterprise, and consumer. This is an investment in deep infrastructure that secures the connectivity backbone of our mobile economy and way of life. By building a new telco with its own software stack, rather than just reselling the service of incumbents, Cape is the only credible alternative to the traditional carriers.”
Somesh Dash, General Partner at IVP
