Hyperoptic, a UK provider of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband technology, has received an equity investment commitment of GBP50m led by Quantum Strategic Partners.
Quantum is a private investment vehicle focused upon long duration investments and managed by Soros Fund Management exclusively for the benefit of George Soros and Soros family clients.
The new funding will enable Hyperoptic to meet its ambitious plans to reach more than 500,000 homes with its market-leading 1 Gbps true fibre hyperfast broadband within the next five years.
In September 2011, Hyperoptic was the first to deliver a 1 Gbps symmetrical residential broadband service in the UK, 83 times faster than the current national average, and recently announced that it had surpassed 20,000 homes in London. The company now aims to bring its ground-breaking FTTH technology to as many as ten additional UK cities by the end of the year, with locations for these “hypercities” to be prioritised based on consumer demand.
In addition, the company will soon be expanding to provide hyperfast broadband to business and commercial premises, as well as developing new products such as IPTV and cloud computing offerings for its consumer customers.
Hyperoptic was founded in 2010 by entrepreneurs Boris Ivanovic and Dana Tobak, who also established a number of other pioneering ISPs including Be (now part of BSkyB) in the UK and Bostream in Sweden.
As part of the investment, three additional non-executive directors are set to join Hyperoptic’s board to oversee the company’s rapid expansion. They include Bruno Ducharme, chairman of TIW Capital Partners and founder of European mobile operator TIW, along with Waldemar Szlezak and Joshua Ho-Walker of Soros Fund Management.
Boris Ivanovic, chairman and co-founder of Hyperoptic, says: “Today’s investment is a resounding vote of confidence in both our business model and the bright prospects for FTTH technology in the UK. As momentum continues to build for ‘smart cities’ and an increasingly technology-fuelled economy and society, the need to future proof our infrastructure has become absolutely critical and Hyperoptic will play a key role in doing just that.”
