Freshwave secures additional £100m to maintain growth momentum
Freshwave, a leading mobile infrastructure provider in the UK, is pleased to announce that it has secured a committed credit facility of up to £100m from Guggenheim Investments, on behalf of certain clients, to fund its continuing growth trajectory. Guggenheim Investments is the global asset management and investment advisory division of Guggenheim Partners. This funding builds on the significant investment made to date by DigitalBridge, a leading global alternative asset manager dedicated to investing in digital infrastructure with over USD$88bn of infrastructure assets under management worldwide.
Freshwave, with its attractive connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service offering, provides indoor connectivity via small cells, distributed antenna systems and Wi-Fi to thousands of buildings across the UK, with customers including skyscrapers, stadiums, acute hospitals and central and local government buildings. Working closely with the UK mobile network operators, Freshwave also supports hundreds of outdoor mobile networks and builds masts on their behalf.
Freshwave has maintained a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) exceeding 30% over the past five years. And with Freshwave’s addressable digital infrastructure market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 20%+, this credit facility allows Freshwave to maximise this market opportunity and continue to deliver connectivity and innovative products to its growing roster of blue-chip customers.
As an early proponent in the emerging field of neutral host organisations, Freshwave has been instrumental in developing the multi-operator “enterprise pays” approach to indoor mobile connectivity, enabling this essential technology to be deployed in many more buildings. Furthermore it is responsible for a wide variety of industry firsts, including small cell solution Omni Network, a multi-operator 4G and 5G outdoor network in the City of London, and an innovative partnership which is enhancing connectivity in Haven holiday parks.
Jeff Ginsberg, Chief Administrative Officer at DigitalBridge, said: “Freshwave has grown steadily over the past five years, consistently expanding its role in connectivity infrastructure and delivering innovative solutions to a growing market. We are proud to support their journey and look forward to seeing how this latest funding accelerates their efforts to meet the increasing demand for digital connectivity.”
“Freshwave’s business model and technical expertise in the digital connectivity space means they are well-positioned to capitalise on the growing demand for seamless connectivity,” said Colm O’Donnell, Managing Director at Guggenheim Investments. “We’re delighted to be working with them as they continue to drive value in the industry.”
Simon Frumkin, CEO of Freshwave, said: “Over the past five years, we have gone from strength to strength, significantly increasing our market share while driving digitally underpinned transformation for our wide variety of satisfied customers. And we don’t see this slowing down; edge connectivity is key to enabling edge computing and artificial intelligence applications which will transform how organisations operate.
“This credit facility will help fund Freshwave’s continued expansion and reflects confidence in both the strength of our business and the neutral host model as a catalyst for faster growth in the digital infrastructure market.”
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