Jul 27 2015
Karma, a New York City-based startup empowering people with a seamless internet connection, ships Karma Go. Karma Go is the company's second pocket-sized WiFi and lets you bring your internet connection with you, everywhere in the U.S.
Karma Go: pocket-sized WiFi that gives you the freedom to bring WiFi with you, everywhere. Karma data is pay as you go and never expires. Each connection can be shared with up to 8 devices; either your own or those of the people around you. Karma doesn't believe in monthly bills, contracts, subscriptions or hidden fees. We want to get you online and get out of your way.
"Finding reliable WiFi outside of the house or office has become too frustrating. You hunt for a network, track down the password and hope to stay online long enough to get something done," says Steven van Wel, Karma CEO & Co-Founder. "At Karma we are on a mission to make internet connectivity ubiquitous. To get there, we're taking the road less traveled by putting customers and design first so we can get you online, and get out of your way."
Karma sold over 20,000 units of Karma Go during their pre-order campaign. Karma Go offers the coverage and speeds that its first product lacked; with coverage expanding from 80 U.S. cities to over 460 and speeds that make WiFi on the go seamless. The battery lasts up to 9 days on sleep-mode and 6-8 hours in use.
The Hardware
For the sake of simplicity, Karma Go lacks a screen and only shows the two things that matter when getting online: signal strength and battery level. Karma Go is completely wireless and its pocket-sized form allows you to throw it in your bag and be on your way.
The Service
Karma Go rides on the Sprint 4G LTE network. Data is purchased directly through Karma--either online or through their mobile apps. Karma is free of contracts, hidden fees, subscriptions or monthly bills and is powered by data that never expires. With Karma, pay as you go for data and connect to WiFi on your own terms.
"Imagine filling up your car, not driving for a month, and having a gas company take what's left in the tank," explains van Wel. "It sounds ridiculous, but that has been happening to us and the data we own for decades."
Social Bandwidth: Share Your Karma Connection
Each Karma connection is available to up to eight devices; either your own or the people around you. Karma ties the data to the person, not the device, a feature called Social Bandwidth. This allows each person to only share access to their connection, never their data, so everyone picks up their own tab. Each time Karma is shared, all parties get 100MB of data. With Karma, everyone wins.
The Karma Mission
Karma was founded to create a future where internet access is ubiquitous, blurring the lines between internet at home, and internet elsewhere. Karma is taking back the internet and making WiFi so simple you never have to think about it. Karma is based in New York City, with teams in both The Netherlands and Italy. Karma launched its first product, Karma Classic, in 2012 during the Techstars Accelerator program and has received $3.5 million in funding.