Making it Work: Sim Local goes global with new tech that allows travellers to avoid costly roaming charges

The company has developed new software aimed at the e-sim market – digital sim cards which are expected to replace physical products in the next decade

Killian Whelan, chief executive of Sim Local: ‘There are 300 million intercontinental travellers who fly every year. That’s the size of the market for us.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Sim Local, the Irish-headquartered sim card retailer, expects to triple its business in the next four years after developing technology it claims will make it easier than ever for international travellers to avoid expensive roaming charges.

The company, founded in 2010, employs around 120 people around the world, including 43 in Ireland. It sells intercontinental travellers bundles that give them access to local networks for data, calls and texts, saving them the hassle and expense of using their own sim card in a different continent.

Sim Local now has standalone stores in several airports around the world, as well as 300 contracted sales points globally where it sells its prepaid sim cards, according to Killian Whelan, its founder and chief executive.

“There are 300 million intercontinental travellers who fly every year,” Whelan said. “That’s the size of the market for us.”

As well as its own shops, Sim Local works in partnership with airport retailers globally, meaning customers can go into a shop, pick up one of its bundles and be operational on their new sim within minutes.

It saves them the trouble normally associated with inserting a new sim into a phone, because Sim Local has arrangements with mobile providers and has developed a plug-and-play solution.

The Enterprise Ireland-backed firm was badly affected by Covid-19, with air travel grounded as a result of restrictions imposed in countries around the world. The company’s sales dipped as low as 5 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, and it was not clear how quickly the situation would correct itself. It was, Whelan said, a “horrific” period for the business.

In response, the firm accelerated the development of new software aimed at the e-sim market – digital sim cards which are expected to replace physical products in the next decade.

Instead of being a removable plastic card inside a phone, an e-sim is a small chip embedded in a handset. Users scan a QR code to load it onto their phones, and can carry up to six in a single device.

For Sim Local, the development represents a big opportunity, Whelan explained, because it can work with operators to create e-sims for international travellers and make it easier for them to get a local sim in the country they’re travelling to.

The company offers these network providers access to intercontinental travellers because it runs the marketing and point-of-sale part of the operation, meaning they don’t have to do that work.

“We can say to them: our software is going to let you sell e-sim cards to customers who are intercontinental travellers, and that’s a huge market,” he said.

In 2021, Sim Local received investment from Cardinal Capital Group, the €250 million private equity investment firm, demonstrating the fund’s confidence that its product would bounce back from the pandemic.

Whelan said the company was now back up to 80 per cent of its pre-Covid revenues, and that it expected significant growth as a result of the development of the e-sim market.

“The digital developments in train are something that we’re really excited about,” he said. “It will give us the combination of physical sim sales and also virtual business through our software.”