About us
Movirtu provides innovative mobile technology and business models to wireless telecommunication service providers servicing rural poor communities in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia to help them realise shared access to basic mobile phone services at a much lower cost than has been achieved before.
Although we are a for-profit enterprise, the company has an underlying social mission: To expand the use of mobile communication by the rural poor communities in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia living on less than $2 a day to improve their sustainable livelihoods and help alleviate poverty.
Our management
Our team has a deep insight into delivering telecommunication solutions into the Base of the Pyramid "BoP" market. We have experienced the challenges of delivering mobile infrastructure solutions to developing countries and the reality of doing business in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia. We have the innovation and the passion to drive Universal Access into a reality.
Our details
Movirtu Limited is a Private Limited Company Registered in England and Wales
Company No. 6521961
VAT Registration No. 938 3750 92
Movirtu Limited
2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street
London, EC1V 4PY, UK
Tel: +44 20 7043 1131
Fax: +44 20 3051 7313
Movirtu South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Building 8, Jean Park Chambers
252 Jean Avenue
Centurion, 0157 South Africa
Tel: +27 11 461 6359
Fax: +27 11 252 6162
What we do
Simple low cost access to mobile phones has huge economic and social impacts. Out of the 6.6bn people in the world, there are 4bn who are currently 'unconnected" and do not have a mobile phone. The majority of these people survive on less than two dollars a day. Movirtu is committed to delivering technology and innovation that can enable basic phone services for these people at the 'Base of the Pyramid'. We do this by delivering solutions to mobile operators that allow them to launch new products and business models specifically for this segment at a lower cost base to the mobile operator than could be reached before.
To the end user, by working with the network providers, we are creating the conditions that allow them the opportunity to use a mobile phone. We are making access affordable. We are connecting the unconnected. We are enabling people to have a phone number and participate in the economic system. We are helping people access jobs, raise incomes, access displaced family members and, increasingly, we are acting as an enabler to send and receive remittances over the mobile phone network.
The developed world model of phone ownership and usage is not applicable in this market. Low income subscribers use phones in far different ways than you could imagine. This market cannot be satisfied by diluted down, low cost versions of traditional technology, it must be addressed by the most advanced technologies creatively combined with the existing infrastructure. This is where we come in, Movirtu provides the technology, the business model innovation and market knowledge to make this happen.
Our investors
Established by Bob Pattillo in 2003, Gray Ghost Ventures invests in early stage, high impact ventures that have innovative information and communication technologies that contribute to the well-being of low-income communities in emerging markets.
Established in 2008 through the restructuring of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) Grassroots Business Initiative, GBF builds and supports high impact organisations that provide sustainable economic opportunities to people at the base of the economic pyramid.