Lebara Just Entered Africa. The Story of the Sri Lankan Refugees Who Built a Global Telecom Empire (and the Stocks to Watch)

Key Takeaways

• Two extraordinary founders, one city: both Lebara (founded 2001) and its rival Lyca (Lycamobile, founded 2006) were built by Sri Lankan Tamil entrepreneurs from Jaffna who arrived in Europe as refugees and built global telecom empires serving migrant communities.
• Lebara's latest milestone: Lebara just launched in Nigeria (14 September 2026), its first-ever move into Africa, as a "virtual" mobile operator running on Airtel Nigeria's network, targeting underserved communities.
• Lyca's entertainment empire: Lyca went further still, using telecom profits to fund some of South Indian cinema's biggest films (2.0, Ponniyin Selvan, L2: Empuraan) and Tamil TV channels, a remarkable example of diaspora money flowing back into culture.
• The catch for investors: both Lebara and Lyca are privately owned, so there's no stock to buy in either. Their stories are signals about a powerful theme, use them as a starting point to research the listed companies exposed to the same growth.
• How to play the theme: research listed telecom players in the region (such as Airtel Africa and MTN) and global entertainment and connectivity names.
• The takeaway: be proud of the story, then do the homework. A theme isn't a stock, and valuation always matters.
• Research it your way: you can invest in global stocks and ETFs from just $1 with zero commission on the Nemo.money app.

Lebara, the international mobile brand well known to migrant and expat communities for affordable calls home, has just made a landmark move: it has launched in Nigeria, its first-ever entry into Africa. Going live on 14 September 2026 as the country's second commercial "virtual" mobile operator, it's a bold step into one of the world's biggest, youngest and most competitive mobile markets, and a window into a much larger investment theme.

For investors, an expansion like this is interesting less for the company itself (as we'll see, you can't directly buy it) and more for what it signals about the growth of African telecoms and digital services. This guide covers Lebara's story, its Nigeria push, and, crucially, the listed telecom and entertainment stocks you can actually research to play the theme. If it prompts you to research the theme, you can explore global stocks and ETFs from just $1 with zero commission on the Nemo.money app.

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The Lebara Story: Built From Nothing, for People Like Us

This is the part worth telling properly, because Lebara's origin story is genuinely remarkable, and one that many in the Sri Lankan, Tamil and wider South Asian diaspora can feel proud of.

• 🌟 A refugee who built a billion-euro company. Ratheesan Yoganathan was born in Jaffna, in the north of Sri Lanka. Twice displaced by the civil war, he spent time at a boarding school in India from the age of eight, before arriving in the UK aged just 15, his family having fled the conflict. He studied aeronautical engineering at Kingston University in London, funding his master's degree himself, working along the way. By his own account, when he and his co-founders decided to start Lebara, they had no idea how to run a business, had never taken a bank loan, and brought in no outside investors.
• ✈️ Born at a Norwegian airport. The idea for Lebara came in 2001 when Yoganathan was travelling in Norway with his two close friends and future co-founders, Rasiah Ranjith Leon and Baskaran Kandiah. Gazing up at the imposing Telenor building on the way to the airport, the three friends decided they wanted to build something equally impressive. They sat down in an airport café and began planning what would become Lebara. Even the name carries their story: it was coined from the first two letters of each founder's surname: Leon, Baskaran and Ratheesan.
• 🤝 Built for migrants, by migrants. Their founding insight was personal: as migrants themselves, they knew how expensive and difficult it was to call family back home. So they built a brand specifically for people like them. "We saw an opportunity globally to create a brand where migrants feel 'that brand is for me'," Yoganathan has said. From selling calling cards through independent phone shops, Lebara grew into a pan-European and now global mobile brand.
• 💛 Giving back. Success hasn't changed their sense of purpose. The founders set up the Lebara Foundation, building homes, a school and a clinic for displaced children in Chennai, southern India. Yoganathan has pledged to donate half his wealth to it, a remarkable commitment from a man who arrived in England as a teenage refugee with nothing.
• 📈 Where Lebara stands today. Now owned by Waterland Private Equity and generating over €500 million a year in revenue, Lebara operates across multiple countries in Europe and now, as of September 2026, Africa, serving millions of customers, most of them from migrant and diaspora communities.

What Lebara Just Did in Nigeria

Before the Nigeria push, it's worth understanding just how far Lebara has already come in its home market, because it makes the Africa move even more striking.

• 🇬🇧 A UK success story. Lebara is now one of the UK's fastest-growing mobile brands. Running on Vodafone's network (giving it coverage of over 99% of the UK population), it has built a strong following among migrants, expats and value-conscious consumers with its standout offer: free calls to over 50 countries included on all plans. Its 2024 UK marketing campaign won the Marketing Week Award for Media and Telecoms, and helped Lebara grow its UK market share by 50%, an extraordinary achievement in a flat, fiercely competitive market. The brand scores 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot with tens of thousands of reviews, and has received repeated "recommended provider" recognition from consumer groups. For a business that started selling calling cards through independent phone shops, that is remarkable progress.
• 📈 Growing revenues. The group's revenues reached over €513 million in 2023, with the UK its largest single market, and growing at double-digit rates. That commercial strength is what gives it the confidence and resources to take on a market as complex as Nigeria.

The Nigeria launch is a genuine milestone for the brand:

• 🇳🇬 First step into Africa. Lebara went live nationwide in Nigeria on 14 September 2026, its first African market, offering physical SIM cards and eSIMs with digital self-onboarding.
• 📶 An "asset-light" MVNO. Lebara is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator: rather than building its own expensive towers, it runs on an existing operator's network (partnering with Airtel Nigeria) and focuses on pricing, distribution, digital products and customer experience. It's a lean, software-led model.
• 🎯 Targeting the underserved. Instead of taking on the giants head-on for the mass market, Lebara is aiming at underserved and niche segments frustrated by network problems and high data costs, targeting up to one million customers in its first year.
• 🌐 Why Nigeria. With a huge, young, fast-growing and increasingly digital population, Nigeria is one of the most attractive long-term telecom and digital-services markets in the world, which is exactly why it's so fiercely competitive.

Meet a Big Rival: Lyca, and Its Extraordinary Entertainment Empire

Lebara is often confused with a similar-sounding competitor, Lyca (Lycamobile), and the two are genuine rivals in the diaspora-telecom space with a strikingly similar founding story. Understanding both is part of appreciating just how remarkable this Sri Lankan Tamil-diaspora story is.

• 🌟 Another refugee, another empire. Allirajah Subaskaran was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka in 1972, the same city as Lebara's founder Yoganathan. He too fled the civil conflict as a teenager, his journey taking him first to France, where his family ran a restaurant and corner shop in Paris, before he eventually settled in the UK. He named Lycamobile after his sister, Lehka, "I didn't want to name the company after her exactly in case it didn't work out," he has said. Lycamobile launched in 2006 and today operates across 21 countries, serving around 15 million customers worldwide.
• 📱 A direct competitor. Like Lebara, Lycamobile is a UK-based MVNO serving migrant and diaspora communities with cheap international calls and mobile data. The two brands compete directly for very similar customers, a rivalry between two businesses with almost identical origins and values, both rooted in the experience of being far from home and wanting to stay connected.
• 🎬 A film and TV empire unlike anything else. Here's what makes Lyca truly extraordinary: using the success of his telecom business, Subaskaran founded Lyca Productions in 2014 in Chennai, and it became one of the most ambitious film production houses in South Indian cinema history. Lyca backed some of Tamil cinema's biggest and most expensive films, including 2.0 (starring Rajinikanth, one of India's costliest films ever made), Ponniyin Selvan I and II (Mani Ratnam's epic period saga) and L2: Empuraan. Beyond film, the Lyca Group owns Tamil TV channels, radio stations, and even cricket teams (the Lyca Kovai Kings in Tamil Nadu and Lyca Jaffna Kings in Sri Lanka, both champions in 2022). A teenage refugee from Jaffna building an entertainment empire for the global Tamil diaspora is one of modern business's more extraordinary stories.
• 💛 Giving back. Like Yoganathan, Subaskaran has channelled success into philanthropy. The Gnanam Foundation (named after his mother) supports displaced communities from the Sri Lankan civil war, and he works with the British Asian Trust. Having experienced displacement himself, his charitable work focuses on sustainable support for vulnerable communities.
• ⚠️ The honest notes. Lyca is also privately owned, so there's no Lyca stock to buy. And it's worth noting that Lyca Productions has faced reported financial pressures in recent years, and the parent company has had well-documented legal matters in Europe (over tax issues), a reminder that even remarkable business empires carry real risks.

The deeper story: two men, both born in Jaffna, both displaced by war, both building global telecom brands from scratch in the UK, each now employing thousands and serving millions of migrant customers worldwide, while putting diaspora communities on the global business map. Two very different empires with the same human origin. And neither is on a stock market.

The Catch: You Can't Buy Lebara (or Lyca)

Here's the key point for investors, and it applies to both brands:

• 🚫 Both are private. Lebara is now owned by Waterland Private Equity; Lyca is owned privately by Subaskaran. Neither is listed on a stock exchange, so there's no Lebara or Lyca share you can buy. The gains from their extraordinary growth flow to their private owners.
• 🔎 So use their stories as a signal. The smarter approach is to treat these businesses as a signal about a powerful theme, the rapid growth of mobile and digital services across Africa, South Asia and other emerging markets, and then research the listed companies exposed to that same wave.

How to Invest in the Theme: Telecom Stocks to Research

If Lebara's move makes you bullish on emerging-market and African telecoms, here are the listed players to research.

African and emerging-market telecoms (the most direct theme plays):

• 📡 Airtel Africa (LSE: AAF). A major pan-African mobile and mobile-money operator, and notably the host network Lebara is using in Nigeria. One of the most direct listed ways to research the African telecom-growth theme. (Its parent, India's Bharti Airtel, is another linked name.)
• 🗼 MTN Group (JSE: MTN) and MTN Nigeria. Africa's largest mobile operator, dominant in Nigeria and across the continent. A bellwether for African telecoms. (MTN Nigeria is separately listed in Lagos.)
• 🌍 Vodafone (NASDAQ: VOD). A global telecom giant with significant African exposure (including via its Vodacom business), offering a more diversified, developed-plus-emerging-market profile.

US telecom giants (a different, steadier angle):

A quick note: there are no Sri Lankan-founded companies listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ, Lebara and Lyca are both private. But for readers who want exposure to the broader global telecom theme via US-listed names that are easy to access, the big three US carriers are worth researching as examples:

• 📱 T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS). The fastest-growing of the three major US carriers in recent years, with a strong track record of taking market share and a reputation for disrupting the incumbent telcos. A different market (US, not Africa), but a useful benchmark for what an aggressive telecom challenger can achieve.
• 📶 AT&T (NYSE: T). One of the world's largest telecoms, recently simplified to focus on its core wireless and fibre business. It offers a historically high dividend yield, making it a staple for income-focused investors. Mature and US-centric, but widely held.
• 🔵 Verizon (NYSE: VZ). The other US giant, with a premium network reputation and a similar income-focused profile to AT&T. Steady rather than fast-growing, but another widely-researched name in the sector.

The honest distinction: the US carriers are mature, stable, dividend-paying businesses in a developed market, very different from the fast-growing, higher-risk African telecom plays that Lebara's story points to. They serve different investor needs and carry different risk profiles, so be clear on which exposure you actually want.

A note on Sri Lankan-founded listed companies: while both Lebara and Lyca were built by Sri Lankan-Tamil entrepreneurs, neither is listed, so there's no direct "buy the Sri Lankan-founded telecom" route for public-market investors. The Colombo Stock Exchange (Sri Lanka) does list ~284 companies in sectors from tea to finance, but those are locally-listed and not widely accessible from the UAE. For now, the listed routes into this theme remain the African and global telecoms above.

And the Entertainment Angle: Riding the Same Digital Wave

The same force driving telecom growth, more people, more smartphones, more data, also powers the digital entertainment brands that live on those networks. It's a connected theme worth researching:

• 🎬 Streaming and content. As connectivity spreads, demand for streaming and digital entertainment grows. Global names like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) and Disney (NYSE: DIS) are the listed giants of that shift, increasingly eyeing emerging markets for their next wave of growth.
• 📱 The bigger picture. More affordable data (exactly what MVNOs like Lebara push) means more people streaming, gaming and using digital services, a tailwind for the whole "digital consumer" economy, not just telecoms.
• ⚖️ But mind the differences. These are large, developed-market-centric companies for which emerging markets are one growth avenue among many, a very different profile from a pure African-telecom play. Match the stock to the exposure you actually want.

The Honest Risks

• ⚠️ You can't buy the brand in the story. Lebara is private, so the temptation is to buy "proxies", which are different businesses with their own risks and drivers.
• ⚠️ A launch is not a profit. Entering a market, even a big one, doesn't guarantee success. MVNOs in particular face tough economics (wholesale costs, price-sensitive customers, fierce competition), and Nigeria has been a hard market for new entrants.
• ⚠️ Emerging-market risk. African and emerging-market telecoms can be strong growth stories but come with real risks: currency volatility, regulation, political and economic swings, and inflation.
• ⚠️ Foreign-listing and access. Several of the most direct plays trade on the London or Johannesburg exchanges (or in Lagos), so availability depends on your platform, and currency adds another layer.
• ⚠️ A theme is not a stock. A powerful growth theme doesn't make any single company a good buy, or a good buy at today's price. Fundamentals and valuation still decide.

The takeaway: Lebara's Nigeria launch is a vivid sign of how fast African mobile and digital services are growing, and of a brand, built for diaspora communities, chasing that opportunity. But since you can't buy Lebara, the disciplined move is to research the listed telecom and entertainment companies exposed to the same wave, on their own merits, risks and prices.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I invest in Lebara?

Not directly. Lebara is a privately owned company (headquartered in London, owned by private investors), so it isn't listed on a stock exchange and there's no Lebara stock for ordinary investors to buy. This is common with fast-growing private brands, much of the value is captured privately. Investors interested in the theme Lebara's growth represents, the expansion of African and emerging-market mobile and digital services, typically research listed telecom and entertainment companies instead.

What is Lebara, and where is it from?

Lebara is an international mobile brand founded in the UK in 2001 by three Sri Lankan-born entrepreneurs. It built its name giving migrant and diaspora communities an affordable way to call family in their home countries, and has since grown into a global, value-focused telecom brand operating in multiple markets. In September 2026 it launched in Nigeria, its first move into Africa. It is privately owned, not publicly listed.

What is an MVNO?

An MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) is a mobile company that provides services, SIMs, calls, data, using another operator's existing network infrastructure, rather than building and maintaining its own towers and spectrum. This "asset-light" model lets MVNOs like Lebara focus on pricing, distribution, digital products and customer experience. In Nigeria, Lebara runs on Airtel Nigeria's network. MVNOs can be nimble and low-cost, but face tough economics because they pay to use someone else's network.

Which telecom stocks are exposed to African growth?

Listed companies with significant African telecom exposure include Airtel Africa (London-listed, and Lebara's host network in Nigeria), MTN Group (Johannesburg-listed, Africa's largest mobile operator, with MTN Nigeria separately listed in Lagos), and Vodafone (which has African exposure via Vodacom). India's Bharti Airtel is a linked parent name. These are examples to research, not recommendations; several trade on non-US exchanges, so availability varies by platform, and African telecoms carry currency, regulatory and economic risks. Your capital is at risk.

What's the difference between Lebara and Lyca?

They're separate companies that are often confused because both are UK-based, Sri Lankan-Tamil-founded international mobile brands (MVNOs) serving migrant and diaspora communities with cheap international calls. Lebara (founded 2001) just launched in Nigeria, its first move into Africa. Lyca (Lycamobile, founded 2006 by Allirajah Subaskaran) is a direct competitor and is also notable for its entertainment arm, Lyca Productions, which has financed some of the biggest South Indian (Tamil) films, plus Tamil TV and radio. Both are privately owned, so neither has stock you can buy.

How can I invest in the digital-entertainment theme?

The same growth in connectivity and affordable data that helps telecoms also benefits digital-entertainment companies. Global listed names include Netflix, Spotify and Disney, all increasingly targeting emerging markets for growth. Investors can research these individually or via technology, communication-services or emerging-market ETFs that hold a basket of such companies. Remember these are large, developed-market-centric firms for which emerging markets are just one growth avenue, so match the investment to the exposure you actually want.

Final Thoughts: Two Refugees From Jaffna Who Built Global Empires

Lebara's launch in Nigeria is a small but telling moment in a much larger story. Two men, both born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, both displaced by civil war as children, arrived in Europe with next to nothing, and went on to build two of the most impactful diaspora-focused telecom brands in the world. Ratheesan Yoganathan built Lebara in an airport café in Norway, named it from the first two letters of each founder's name, and turned it into a company serving millions of migrants across continents, while pledging half his wealth to support displaced children. Allirajah Subaskaran named Lyca after his sister, started with a calling-card firm in the UK, and turned telecom profits into some of South Indian cinema's most ambitious films, from Ponniyin Selvan to 2.0, building TV channels and cricket teams for the global Tamil diaspora along the way. Both are extraordinary examples of what diaspora communities can build.

For investors, the lesson is one that recurs: the most inspiring company in a story often isn't one you can buy. But the theme they both point to, the rapid growth of African and emerging-market telecoms, the digital entertainment riding on top of that connectivity, and the enduring commercial power of serving diaspora communities well, is very much investable, through the listed players exposed to it. The discipline is to treat an inspiring headline as a starting point for research: understand the businesses, respect the emerging-market risks, mind the valuations, and decide what exposure you actually want. Be proud of the story, then do the homework.

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Terms and conditions apply. This is not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Your capital is at risk. See website for Risk Disclosure. Exinity ME Ltd (https://nemo.money) is regulated by ADGM's Financial Services Regulatory Authority.

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