UK rural broadband provider Gigaclear has attracted £20m (US$30m) from new investor Infracapital and a further £10m (£15m) from existing backer Woodford Investment Management.
Last September, Gigaclear looked at listing on AIM, London’s junior…
UK rural broadband provider Gigaclear has attracted £20m (US$30m) from new investor Infracapital and a further £10m (£15m) from existing backer Woodford Investment Management.
Last September, Gigaclear looked at listing on AIM, London’s junior stock market, hiring Oriel Securities and Cameron Barney as advisers, before deciding to remain private.
Gigaclear will put the £30m of new investment towards expanding its fibre-to-the-premises network in rural communities. The company has built and now operates 23 rural fibre networks and has a further 31 in construction. Matthew Hare, Gigaclear’s founder and CEO, said the new investments would allow his company to accelerate the roll-out of its network over the next 24 months.
Infracapital is the infrastructure investment arm of financial services group Prudential, while Woodford Investment Management was set up last year by fund manager Neil Woodford. The latter is also invested in newly-formed telco turnaround firm Zegona Communications.
Ed Clarke, co-founder and director of Infracapital, said he saw Gigaclear as “a unique opportunity to invest at an early stage in the development of high speed communications infrastructure for the UK’s underserved rural population”, adding that it has “enormous growth potential”.
Gigaclear was advised by Cameron Barney on the new investment.
