Rebtel Spins Off Its Sinch In-App Messaging Unit With $12 Million in New Funding

Rebtel, one of the many competitors in the crowded free mobile calling space, is spinning out a unit that focuses on allowing such communication tools to easily be added to other apps.

The new venture, Sinch, hopes to make the case to Android and iOS developers that adding telephony and other messaging options can be, well, a cinch.

While perhaps less crowded than the messaging app space where Rebtel has focused, the territory will find Sinch competing against, among others, Twilio.

The unit is taking 40 employees — about half Rebtel’s workforce — and has raised $12 million in new funding from Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and others.

“Rebtel was a pioneer in offering free and super-cheap voice services to consumers, and now Sinch is giving developers the best way to add a free communication layer to their apps,” Sinch CEO Andreas Bernström said in a statement. “We anticipate huge growth for our new business over the next 12 months as app development continues its rapid pace, which is the precise reason we felt Sinch deserved its own dedicated staff and focus as standalone company.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via