UCL Announces Investment in iQsim and changes to Senior Management Roles

HONG KONG, Feb. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UCLOUDLINK GROUP INC. ("UCLOUDLINK" or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: UCL), the world's first and leading mobile data traffic sharing marketplace, announced recent investment in iQsim, the leading provider of open virtual SIM (VSIM) platform and VSIM-enabled mobile devices based in France, through its Singapore subsidiary uCloudlink (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (“Singapore UCLOUDLINK”) and UCLOUDLINK’s recent changes to its senior management roles.

1.     UCLOUDLINK’s Investment in iQsim

Singapore UCLOUDLINK subscribed to iQsim’s newly issued ordinary shares, representing around 31% of iQsim’s total issued and outstanding shares. In addition, Hong Kong uCloudlink Network Technology Limited (“HK UCLOUDLINK”) and iQsim will have their patents cross licensed.

iQsim’s Virtual SIM patented technology enables central SIM cards storage over the cloud and on-demand allocation of the SIM cards to mobile devices, which facilitate sharing SIM cards across multiple devices and allowing user to use the most appropriate SIM card. iQsim also has various applications such as data roaming for travelers, mobile testing, mobile communication and SIM card provisioning and deployment. Through the cooperation, iQsim will license its U.S. No. 8,938,232 patent and EP2595444B patent to HK UCLOUDLINK and HK UCLOUDLINK will also license its U.S. 9,548,780 and U.S. 9,432,066 patents to iQsim. Such licenses will be royalty free, fully paid-up, non-exclusive and non-transferrable.

“We are pleased to have UCLOUDLINK as an investor. This will help us strengthen our position in Europe for providing data solutions for the 5G and Internet-of-thing (IoT) market. It will help us improve our solutions and coverage for mobile testing solutions by leveraging common technologies and synergies.” said Philippe BESSAGUET, CEO and Co-founder of iQsim.

“The strategic investment in iQsim is an important component of our global investment which help us further expand our business in Europe faster and better to provide superior mobile data connectivity services to both carriers and users.” said Chaohui Chen, Director and CEO of UCLOUDLINK. “Leveraging this partnership, we will further expand our PaaS and SaaS ecosystem with mobile network operators (MNOs) and business partners in Europe. This cross-licensing cooperation will also enhance synergies of VSIM technology platform and our cloud SIM technology to facilitate the development of various aspects of application such as 5G and IoT solutions. The alliance enriches our patented technology and platform, new application scenarios and PaaS and SaaS ecosystem, which is integral to our global expansion to form a complete value circle at serving various business partners during the 5G cloud era.”

2.     Changes to Senior Management Roles

UCLOUDLINK announced recent role changes for its senior management. Shubao Pei, currently Chief R&D Officer, will assume the role of Chief R&D Officer and Chief Supply Chain Officer. Zhongqi Kuang will no longer assume the role of Chief Supply Chain Officer.

These changes took effect on January 27, 2021.