Hyperoptic, the UK’s largest gigabit broadband provider, announced on Wednesday that it has signed a deal for a significant equity raise with Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala), the investment arm of the Government of Abu Dhabi.
On closing of the transaction, Mubadala will acquire a minority stake in the company and Mounir Barakat, executive director ICT will join Hyperoptic's board of directors as an observer.
This funding follows the company’s successful £250 million debt raise this summer.
Hyperoptic said the last two rounds of funding, combined with the large balance sheets of its shareholders, will allow it to accelerate the growth of its 1Gbps full fibre national broadband network.
Hyperoptic is committing to deploy up to £500 million over the next three years, bringing forward its target of two million homes passed to 2021. Another three million homes, bringing the total to five million homes, will be passed by 2024.
Barakat said: “We have been following Hyperoptic for the last couple of years and have been impressed by the impact they have had on the UK fibre market, taking a strong leadership, catalyst and disruptor role. We are excited to be joining the Hyperoptic team, providing substantial capital and balance sheet power as support for their clear vision for the future of the UK telecom market.”
Hyperoptic also announced its “Hyper Cities” rollout with extensive deployment of over 5,000km metro fibre network by 2021 with initial cities including Greater London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Leeds.
Hyperoptic already powers nearly half a million homes and businesses with access to its 1Gbps service, giving customers internet speed 21 times faster than the national average.
Hyperoptic chairman, Boris Ivanovic, added: “Backing by such a significant sovereign wealth fund, not only provides the firepower to deliver on our plan and vision, but is a further proof of the road we have taken in fundamentally transforming a very slow and reactive UK telco market. Together with the new management team, the road ahead is very exciting indeed.”