Wireless ISP Wildanet Get £750k from Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Fund

Wireless broadband ISP Wildanet, which aspires to extend their network across thousands of premises in rural parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and possibly South Wales, has become the first company to be supported by an investment of £750,000 via the £40m Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF).

The investment (an equity stake managed by The FSE Group) is being match-funded by the FSE Angel network, private investors and Crowdcube (crowdfunding raise) as part of a £1.5m package. Under this plan the ISP will aim to target 12,000 new customers and create an estimated 39 jobs over the next 3 years, which would be very rapid growth for a provider that at the last count had fewer than 100 customers (Sept 2018).

Wildanet is otherwise still fairly young (setup in January 2017) but they’ve already built a 50Mbps capable wireless broadband network for homes around The Lizard (peninsula), with speeds rising up to 1Gbps for business connections. However attaining the growth they seek will not be easy in this market.

Over the same period the ISP is likely to face challenges from the on-going deployment of state aid supported fixed line “superfast broadband” networks, as well as the Government’s forthcoming 10Mbps+ Universal Service Obligation (USO) and the continued expansion of 4G and future 5G mobile networks.

Ian Calvert, CEO and Founder of Wildanet, said:

“There is a real opportunity for us to radically improve connection speeds for homes and businesses across Cornwall currently experiencing low bandwidths. The funding from CIOSIF and our match funders will allow us to expedite our growth strategy and bring reliable superfast broadband to hard to reach areas.”

Ralph Singleton, Senior Fund Manager FSE Group, added:

“Wildanet is helping to close the digital divide in rural areas by offering households and businesses across the county access to the same digital services as other parts of the UK. With a depth of industry experience gained with major players in the telecom sector, the management team are well-positioned to exploit this opportunity while helping to drive forward the regional economy in the process.”

CIOSIF is said to be supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. Further investment has come from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP and HM Government.