Adam Lyons, who co-founded Austin-based insurance comparison site The Zebra, has just secured an $18 million seed round for his new venture, Really Communications Inc.
The funding, led by Polychain and Floodgate founding partner Mike Maples Jr., appears to be the largest seed round raised by a telecom company in the U.S., based on a search of Crunchbase.
The startup aims to create a blockchain-powered mobile network that's community-owned, affordable and provides privacy.
Really will let people put mini cell towers in their homes or businesses to earn cash. That option isn't yet active, but the company's website said that cell tower hosts could earn up to $275 per month, based on its white paper research. That's about 174 gigabytes of data at $1.58 per gig.
"The ongoing and rapid adoption of Web3 and blockchain into our everyday lives has allowed for an unprecedented period of change in telecommunications," Maples Jr. stated.
Really, which was founded in 2022, has launched a compare-and-switch service that lets users compare 56 different carriers and 379 plans to find the best one for them. For example, a quick search suggested Boost Infinite's unlimited talk, text and data plan at $25 a month is the best option in Austin.
Meanwhile, Really Wireless, the company's phone service, is set to launch later this year.
Lyons co-founded insurance comparison site The Zebra in 2011 and for years was its CEO. He is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Austin-based Bill Wood Ventures.
He said that there's a big opportunity to create a phone service brand, and he wants to help communities help themselves by supporting each other with their phone usage.
The company says its early team members include people with experience at AT&T, T-Mobile, GoogleFi, uShip and Indeed. Shawn Bose, who is the company's president, was previously a VP of product at uShip and is a special limited partner at ATX Seed Ventures.
