DataXoom, a four-year-old startup MVNO focused on business customers, has doubled its revenues and subscribers every year, and today counts roughly 1,000 enterprise accounts.
“We have solid growth,” said CEO Chris Hill. “Things are good.”
Most MVNOs—ranging from larger players like Consumer Cellular and TracFone to smaller players like Republic Wireless and Wing—target the consumer space. Such companies essentially piggyback on the networks of providers like T-Mobile and Verizon but provide their own billing, authentication and activation services.
DataXoom, though, is focused exclusively on the enterprise market, selling data services and devices including tablets, smartphones and wearables to enterprise customers ranging from warehouse companies to healthcare providers to insurance firms. The company sells LTE data services from the likes of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Rogers and Telus.
“We’re very focused on a specific segment,” Hill noted. “All of our customers are enterprise.”
Although Hill said that DataXoom continues to grow, and that it is profitable with no debt, he noted it’s “not a $100 million business”—at least, not yet. The company has operations in California and New Hampshire with a little over a dozen employees.
And, like most MVNOs, what the company is working to fill is a sales gap that may be overlooked by some of the nation’s bigger wireless providers.
“We make money for the carriers,” Hill said of DataXoom’s offerings. “We make sure to stay in our swim lane. … We’ve garnered some level of respect for staying there.”
For example, DataXoom counts healthcare provider CenseoHealth in Dallas as a customer; the company uses a few thousand iPads from DataXoom. And Direct General Insurance uses Cradlepoint routers from DataXoom that provide internet connectivity to the company’s offices if a wired connection goes down. In all of its enterprise sales, DataXoom allows enterprise customers to select the LTE network, device and data plan they want, without having to wade through a specific carrier’s promotional pricing, billing credits and device pricing plans.
“It’s just a different channel,” Hill said, “and hopefully it’s easier for them.”
Hill said DataXoom’s most recent agreement—with Samsung for LTE-capable smart watches—is an example of how the company might expand into new sectors such as enterprise wearables.