I recently had the chance to interview Dov Bar-Gera, co-founder and CEO of YooMee Africa, a Pan-Africa 4G wireless broadband mobile Internet operator with Headquarters in Switzerland.
Dov has co-founded, built and successfully exited numerous start-ups in the field of telecommunications, internet and technology prior to YooMee Africa. The companies included among others:
WiMAX Telecom – the only cross border, wireless broadband operator in Emerging Markets in East Europe. The company deployed over 200 base stations, gaining more than 12’000 customers. WiMAX Telecom was successfully sold to a US Nasdaq quoted company in 2007.
SurfEU AG – a pan European ISP in cooperation with the MediaMarkt Group, Europe largest electronic retailer. SurfEU generated more than 1.4 million subscribers and was acquired by Tiscali in 2001.
RSLCom Austria – one of the first private fixed line operators in Austria, founded after the liberalization of the market in 1998. Today, the company is part of Telekom Austria.
Airpage – the first private paging operator in Austria. The company was sold to Telenor, the Norwegian incumbent, in 1997.
Dov holds an MBA from INSEAD and an engineering degree in land-surveying. Dov is married to Anat and together they have 3 children and live in Switzerland. Dov and Anat were chosen as one of the Leading Entrepreneurs of INSEAD.
In the interview, we talked about getting a company off the ground in a new market with a completely different culture and how one exponential partnership generated thousands of new customers for YooMee early on.
About YooMee
YooMee Africa provides high-speed internet access to the people and businesses of sub-Saharan Africa, combined with value-added services. It offers affordable, reliable, mobile wireless broadband internet connectivity, using 4G / LTE technology, with exceptional quality. The Company is committed to help close the digital divide and is a game changer.
YooMee’s strategy is based on providing exceptionally fast broadband services, backed by world-class customer service and technical support, at the most affordable price, to residential customers, SMEs, SOHOs large corporation and governmental agencies. The Company obtains the necessary licenses and spectrum from the national telecommunication regulator, purchases the infrastructure and deploys the network, and acquires subscribers. The Company provides its customers with internet access and a large variety of broadband internet services and value-added services.
The Company is constantly at the forefront of product and service innovation. Time-to-market is an essential driver for YooMee’s success. YooMee was the first to launch mobile WiMAX in Central Africa and pioneered with TD-LTE in Western Africa. The Company is the first merchant of PayPal in both countries, making online payment in the region a reality.
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