Andrew Yang enjoys being a maverick. After a surprisingly strong showing in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, where he stood out for wearing a “MATH” lapel pin during debates, Yang redirected his energy into business. In 2025, he decided to take on phone giants Verizon and AT&T with a low-cost mobile phone network, Noble Mobile. That venture is now expanding as, on Tuesday, Noble Mobile announced it is acquiring another upstart called Helium Mobile, which has sought to build cryptocurrency into its business model.
The companies declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal, and Yang said Helium’s pricing and service would not change for the foreseeable future in an interview with Fortune.
As part of the acquisition, Noble Mobile will begin using the Helium Network, which is a crypto-powered patchwork of cellular hotspots that made Helium a crypto household name in 2021. Currently, Noble Mobile leases spectrum from T-Mobile to serve its customers.
Nova Labs, the company responsible for developing Helium, will retain the non-Helium Mobile parts of the business, which include a data offloading program aimed at large mobile network operators. Helium’s crypto tokens will remain under the purview of the Helium DAO.
Representatives from both companies cast the move as stemming from a shared commitment to delivering affordable cell phone service to Americans. Spinning off its cellular network will allow Nova Labs to focus on its more economical data offloading business. Noble Mobile, meanwhile, gains the customer list of Helium Mobile, which has seen its cumulative number of sign-ups more than double over the past year.
“We certainly were not looking [to acquire a mobile network business], but when our conversations with Helium sped up and deepened, we knew it was the right thing to do,” Yang said. “It’s rare that you find two companies and organizations that are so aligned and realize that they could do more if they combine forces.”
Upon founding Noble Mobile, Yang characterized the venture as a continuation of his focus on helping Americans secure their financial futures. The company offers unlimited data plans for $50 per month, but users can earn cash back by using fewer than 20 gigabytes of data per month.
The company pitches customers transparent pricing alongside the perk of being “paid to use your phone less.” Noble Mobile announced a $10.3 million seed round led by Corazon Capital in September 2025.
Helium first made its name by building an Internet of Things (IoT) network stitched together with hotspots. Those who contributed to the network received a reward in the form of a crypto token created in 2019.
The token skyrocketed in value in 2021 before crashing alongside the broader crypto market. Around the same time, Helium pivoted to building a 5G network, rolling out a nationwide unlimited cellular plan in December 2023. The service has seen almost 600,000 cumulative sign-ups, a metric that also includes customers who have unsubscribed, according to a publicly available dashboard. Helium Mobile is not profitable, Helium chief operating officer Frank Mong told Fortune in an interview.
Mong said that Helium Mobile was launched to prove that Helium’s network of individuals running hotspots was valuable. That point has been proven, Mong said, so Nova Labs doesn’t need to continue running a direct to consumer cellular business. Instead, it will be focusing on data offloading, a service whereby Nova Labs cuts deals with existing mobile network operators to automatically offload service in areas where Helium coverage is available, thereby easing the strain on the operator’s own network.
At the end of 2025, Nova Labs closed a multi-year deal with a large U.S. carrier, which underscored how Helium offloading had found product-market fit, Mong said.
Nova Labs had around ten suitors interested in buying its mobile business, but Mong said Noble Mobile under Yang’s leadership was a natural fit. Mong himself supported Yang during his 2020 presidential run and sent the Noble founder a selfie of himself in a MATH hat, a piece of Yang campaign merch and a riff on Donald Trump’s MAGA hat that stands for “Make America Think Harder.” Yang responded positively to the overture, Mong said.
“He fell in love with me, but I was already enamored with him, so it was a great match.”