An Arlington telecommunications startup is aiming to double its workforce in the next three months after landing $61 million in capital from several prominent venture capital firms.
Cape, which employs half of its 30-person team out of a WeWork space at 1201 Wilson Blvd. in Rosslyn, is also floating the possibility of taking on new office space somewhere nearby to accommodate its growing headcount. It'll be doing the same in New York, where it also maintains a co-working space for about 15 people.
"We're bursting at the seams in both locations," founder and CEO John Doyle told me during a video call. "I love Rosslyn. It has great accessibility and there's a ton of startups all around here."
Cape describes itself as a privacy-first mobile cellular service provider "built to restore individuals’ control over their mobile identity." As a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Cape leases premium-grade spectrum space — the upper tiers of 5G and 4G bandwidth — from the largest telecom giants in the U.S., allowing it to offer service nationwide. But by serving as the carrier for its customers, Cape maintains direct control over the valuable and vulnerable information that can be exposed when phones do something as simple and as common as switching from cell tower to cell tower for instance. Existing carriers often monetize this data by selling their users' location information to interested parties, a policy Cape vows never to follow.
The extra layer of privacy it offers is its business proposition, and that pitch led to financial backing from prominent San Francisco-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which led Cape's Series A funding round alongside VC firms like A-Star (A*) Capital. Cape started fundraising in 2022, when Doyle launched the startup, and completed the Series A this month. Other investors included Ex/ante, Costanoa Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Forward Deployed VC and Karman Ventures.
Doyle left his position as a senior executive in Palantir Technologies Inc.'s national security business to start Cape.
"That's where I really had the opportunity to learn in a detailed way about all of the different ways that our use of mobile phones betrays our identity and location and our activities on the mobile network," Doyle said of his nearly decadelong stint at Palantir. "I got really deep on that problem set. I got very interested and really passionate about it."
It's a passion that's led to a nine-month, $800,000 contract with the U.S. Navy in which Cape will test out its network security and protections for servicemembers stationed in Guam. Doyle told me this is the only instance where he'll ever discuss customer details publicly, though he did note that the firm has a number of government agencies as clients.
Still, he believes there is a huge opportunity in selling the service directly to consumers, and the plan is to roll out a consumer-facing service later this year.
"We're motivated at the prospect of giving people control over their mobile identities so they can remain connected and live their lives without compromising their privacy or security," Doyle said.
"That does require growing the team significantly, so we're hiring for a bunch of roles," he added, noting that the company is "always" hiring engineers.
Doyle said the company is producing revenue but declined to share specific figures.
