Fiber broadband provider Gigaclear digs deep in hunt for new funding | business news

Fiber optic broadband provider Gigaclear plans to raise hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding as part of an industry-wide race to modernize the UK’s communications infrastructure.

Sky News has learned that Gigaclear is working with bankers at Rothschild to raise between £200m and £300m in additional capital for the launch.

The fundraising, which could involve a combination of debt and equity, is one of a number of attempts by alternative network providers — or altnets — to secure sufficient funding to build companies of real scale.

The market is led by the number of premises by BT’s Openreach division, followed by Virgin Media 02 and CityFibre Holdings.

Dozens of altnets have been launched in recent years, many of which are focused on specific regions of the UK.

Like Gigaclear, Hyperoptic, G.Network and Community Fiber have raised significant sums to fuel their expansion.

Gigaclear’s network is present in 22 counties and surpassed 300,000 locations in May.

This milestone meant the company, which focuses on rural areas in central and southern England, was 60% on its target of connecting 500,000 buildings by December 2023.

Founded in 2010, Gigaclear has already raised hundreds of millions of pounds from investors including Infracapital, M&G’s infrastructure investment arm.

A Gigaclear spokesman declined to comment.