What Shoelace Wireless does

Shoelace Wireless is a privately held mobile-internet optimization company founded in November 2012 in Irvine, California, by two EECS professors and two graduate students from the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) and EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland. The company commercializes university research into software that simultaneously bonds Wi-Fi and cellular (2.5G/3G/4G) networks on Android mobile devices to deliver faster, more reliable, and cheaper mobile internet. It serves consumer Android users (devices running Android 4.0-5.0) with two products: VideoBee, launched November 2013, which combined Wi-Fi and cellular across one or two nearby devices for accelerated video streaming; and Netup, launched via Kickstarter in December 2014, which extends the same bonding architecture to all mobile traffic via intelligent packet scheduling and per-app optimization. The technology is described as "award-winning patent-pending," based on a VPN architecture with cloud-side support, and requires no root access on the device. Founding CTO Dr. Anh Le (Ph.D. in Computer Science, UC Irvine) and co-founder Prof. Athina Markopoulou (Associate Professor in EECS at UC Irvine) lead the technical effort.

The business model is a direct-to-consumer freemium mobile-app distribution through Google Play and Android app stores, targeted at individual consumers rather than enterprise customers. Pre-launch user acquisition is driven by a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign (December 2014), YouTube product demos, Facebook/Twitter social sharing, and an email signup page for early-access notifications. The company has been financed almost entirely by non-dilutive capital: approximately $300,000 in cumulative NSF SBIR grants (June 2013 and December 2015), an EPFL Innogrant, and incubation support from UC Irvine's CalIT2 TechPortal and San Diego's EvoNexus. No venture capital rounds are disclosed, and the company was pre-revenue at the time of the source material. Operating geographies include a US headquarters in Irvine and an engineering/R&D presence in Lausanne, Switzerland, reflecting the dual UC Irvine / EPFL academic heritage.

The market positioning targets horizontal consumer pain points around slow mobile internet, video buffering on services such as Netflix, unreliable connections on Skype calls, and high cellular data costs, with use cases spanning HD streaming, large email attachments, web browsing, and bandwidth-intensive applications such as YouTube, Facebook, and Gmail. Differentiators include being the first Android app to bond Wi-Fi and cellular without root access, fine-grained per-app control, real-time performance monitoring, and cloud-assisted intelligent routing. The company's name, "Shoelace Wireless," is derived from the concept of "Tying Multiple Networks and Devices Together." At time of data collection (2015), the company had 1-10 total employees, no disclosed revenue, and was actively raising capital through the Netup Kickstarter campaign to scale the product beyond the prototype stage.

Name

Shoelace Wireless

Legal name

Shoelace Wireless

Website

https://shoelacewireless.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Shoelace Wireless builds Android apps that bond Wi-Fi and cellular networks on mobile devices to deliver faster, more reliable, and cheaper internet. Founded in 2012 as a UC Irvine/EPFL spinout, it serves consumer Android users via a freemium model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mobile Network Optimization Software

akta.pro primary industry

Decentralized Bandwidth & Connectivity (bandwidth marketplaces, VPN, ISP/last-mile DePIN) (FSAPALAD)

Keywords

• Mobile network optimization
• Wi-Fi cellular bonding
• Android internet acceleration
• VPN packet scheduling
• Mobile data cost reduction

Headquarters

HQ city

Irvine

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Mobile App Distribution: Netup app for Android devices. Revenue model not explicitly disclosed in source material. Pre-launch stage with Kickstarter funding.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Shoelace Wireless develops Android mobile applications that speed up, improve the reliability of, and reduce the data cost of mobile internet by simultaneously bonding Wi-Fi and cellular networks on a single device. Its flagship product, Netup, uses VPN architecture with intelligent packet scheduling algorithms and application-specific optimizations to deliver combined network speeds to user-selected apps on Android 4.0 to 5.0 devices without requiring root access. An earlier product, VideoBee, applied the same dual-network bonding concept specifically to accelerate video streaming.

Product overview

Shoelace Wireless offers mobile internet optimization products for Android devices. The company provides two products: VideoBee (launched November 2013), which was the first app to combine Wi-Fi and cellular networks for faster video streaming, and Netup (launched via Kickstarter December 2014), which evolved from VideoBee to boost all traffic types—not just video—by intelligently combining Wi-Fi and cellular networks on mobile devices. Both products are based on the company's award-winning patent-pending technology utilizing VPN architecture and intelligent packet scheduling algorithms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Netup: The world's first Android app that speeds up mobile Internet by combining Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
• VideoBee

Products and services

• Netup Android mobile app that speeds up, improves reliability of, and reduces the data cost of mobile internet by simultaneously bonding Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks on a single device. Uses VPN architecture with intelligent packet scheduling algorithms and application-specific optimizations to boost selected apps, works in the background, and provides performance monitoring. Targets individual Android smartphone users (Android 4.0–5.0).
• VideoBee First Android app from Shoelace Wireless that combined Wi-Fi and cellular networks on a single device as well as across two devices in proximity to stream videos faster, delivering combined speed and data savings for video use cases on Android.

Quantifiable outcome

• Stream HD videos smoothly
• +3 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• University of California, IrvinecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2012Academic research partner where core technology originated. Founding team members from UC Irvine EECS department. Continued collaboration with Prof. Athina Markopoulou.
• EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011Academic research partner in Switzerland where core technology originated. Provided Innogrant funding. Founding team included EPFL graduate students.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Market position

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=n-wh9ok3A3w
• Facebookfacebook.com/ShoelaceWireless
• Xx.com/ShoelaceW
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/shoelace-wireless

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Shoelace Wireless