ISP Trooli Secure Extra £5m for UK Full Fibre Broadband Rollout

Fibre optic UK broadband ISP Trooli (CallFlow), which last year secured €30m from European investors (here) and extended their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to reach 10,000 homes and businesses (mostly in Kent and Hampshire), has today gained a further £5m of funding via a senior facility agreement with NatWest Bank.

So far most of their initial build has occurred around Kings Hill, Kate Reed Wood, Paddock Wood and Hawking in Kent, as well as Ropley and Bramdean in Hampshire. Later this was followed by another expansion into West Malling, Leybourne, Ryarsh and Coxheath across Kent.

However the operator aims to grow their network to 150,000 premises passed by around mid-2022 and, if all goes to plan, then their long-term ambition is to reach 500,000 by the end of 2025. The new funding is predominantly expected to assist their roll-out across Kent in England.

Ashley Atkins, CFO for Trooli, said:

“We’re extremely passionate about rolling out our Full Fibre network to as many communities in Kent as possible and providing the broadband speeds they deserve.

Demonstrating the ability to deliver against our business plan was a critical factor in gaining the confidence of the NatWest Structured Finance team. It is testament to the hard work of the whole Trooli team that we have secured this investment at such an early stage in the company’s growth plan.

I would also like to thank Acuity Partners for their support through this process.”

Ian Mason, Relationship Director for NatWest, said:

“At NatWest, we are passionate about helping British businesses to prosper, and in turn to provide our regional communities with greater connectivity.

With Trooli, we have not only found a business that is in a great position to succeed but one that will provide a real benefit to residents and business owners in Kent.

We look forward to working with Trooli to help them deliver their business plan, whilst connecting thousands of new customers across Kent to Full Fibre broadband.”

At present Trooli’s packages tend to cost from £50 inc. VAT per month for an unlimited 300Mbps service and this rises to £80 for 900Mbps+ (one-off installation charges range from £80 for self-install to £120 for a Trooli install). However they’ll need to raise significantly more investment to achieve that ambition of 500,000 premises, but they’re off to a good start.