Telecoms is a complex sector in which to operate. Moreover, telecom providers need to confront stiff competition, while offering levels of service and customer experience that distinguish them from the crowd. The ideal would be an end-to-end digital infrastructure solution that allows them to take control for themselves. Enter Telness Tech, as founder Martina Klingvall explains.
Swedish ”teltech” Telness Tech has announced €8.5m in Series A funding allowing the company to continue to revolutionise the European telecoms market through integrated solutions for telcos. Founded in 2021, Telness Tech was spun out of the Swedish telecoms provider Telness, and set out to transform the industry by offering cloud-based infrastructure to businesses, in order to increase customer happiness and lower operational expenditure through an integrated digital offering. In this interview, we speak to their founder, telecoms executive turned entrepreneur, Martina Klingvall.
What made you decide to launch Telness Tech?
The telecoms industry has been lagging behind the tech industry for decades, due to outdated systems, legacy IT, and lack of innovation. We realised there wasn’t anyone out there with the tools to create a seamless and digital customer journey. We wanted an integrated service that’s built to our customers’ needs, and our competitors just didn’t have that. The current telecoms market has a long way to go when it comes to online sales, self service, and an intuitive experience that customers appreciate. Telecoms as it stands is seen as complex and, more often than not, requires traditional channels, such as support or stores. But the customers can take control of all of this themselves. This is the future, and technology needs to support that. When we realised that what we wanted didn’t exist, we built it. That’s what makes Telness Tech different from others; it’s the only end-to-end solution out there for telecom providers in Sweden, and potentially Europe. How do we know this? Well, we’ve tested most of our competitors!
What success have you had to date?
In just one year, we’ve established partnerships with three large telecoms customers to deliver sweeping technological change, including two which have launched a cloud PBX across their platforms. We’ve launched all of this within a short space of time; really, it adds up to a couple of months per partner. This just proves how flexible we can be. By streamlining our solutions and making them as accessible and self-efficient as possible, we’re proud to say we can offer up to a 60 per cent reduction in churn, based on our customer experience, and enable telecom providers to increase market share by attracting new target segments. On top of that, we enable companies to reduce the number of operational staff significantly, knocking down customer support tickets by 80 per cent. This is down to everything we offer being self-service and intuitive. For us, this is our biggest success – creating a solution that works for our customers.
What’s your vision for the start-up’s future, and how are you going to use the funding to get there?
Telness Tech has a vision to raise standards and be a disruptive force that drives systemic change. We want to liberate traditional telcos from legacy infrastructure, cost, and complexity.
Telness Tech’s core purpose is to innovate and digitise the telecoms industry. We want teltech to be what fintech was to finance, by enabling operators to make a difference without having to undergo large and costly digital transformation projects. Over the next year, we’ll not only be laser-focused on investing more into the team and making some key strategic hires to help us expand into other European markets, but we’ll develop our product offering to match our end users’ needs.
What can you tell us about Telness Tech’s position in the current economic climate (inflation, energy crisis, etc.)?
Rising prices will prompt customers to switch providers; that much is a given. They won’t just be looking at price but also at value for money and flexibility. MVNOs and challenger brands that are built on the cloud and partnered with brands like us to have the upper hand here, when it comes to attracting new customers. In the longer term, this means our customers can reduce prices further and increase efficiency – so it’s a win for them and for the customers.
Executive Profile
Martina Klingvall, former Telenor executive, founded the Swedish MVNO Telness, with the ambition of raising the standards within the telecom industry. In 2021, Martina decided to monetise on the software they built, in order to run a fully automated digital telco, and founded Telness Tech. Martina has many years of experience in large-scale digital transformation projects and customer experience.
