GoFibre Get £125m Funding Boost to Support Scotland Gigabit Broadband Rollout

Edinburgh-based UK ISP and network builder GoFibre has this morning announced that they’ve secured a huge £125m funding boost from the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) and Hamburg Commercial Bank. The money will support their roll-out of FTTP broadband under the government backed Project Gigabit contracts in South and North East Scotland.

The UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit scheme is currently working to extend 1Gbps download speeds to reach “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by around 2032. As part of that, GoFibre has already secured three smaller ‘Local’ (Type A) deployment contracts for Teesdale (Lot 4.01), North Northumberland (Lot 34.01) in North England and the Scottish Borders and East Lothian (Scotland Lot 5) area. In July 2025 they also added a fourth contract to that – the large (Type B) £105m (state aid) deal to cover “around” 63,000 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas of North East Scotland (here).

The new contract – covering parts of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, Highland, Moray and Perth and Kinross – was the largest one GoFibre has ever won and seemed to be bigger than their existing funding would allow. This meant that it was likely to be supported by another sizeable funding raise in the future, which is of course precisely what today’s announcement is all about.

The additional £125m being announced today (outside the Forfar Indoor Sports Centre – a GoFibre customer) reflects both a £45m debt facility from the SNIB alongside a further £80m from Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCOB). GoFibre was advised by Deloitte on the transaction. This means the operator is now being backed by a total private investment of £289m (excluding state aid under the Project Gigabit contracts).

Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, said:

“This is a significant step-change in GoFibre’s position both as a major independent broadband provider, and as a significant company in Scotland.

Our appointment as the supplier for the biggest Project Gigabit delivery area in Scotland, in the north east, builds on our win earlier this year for the very first Scottish lot to be announced, for the Borders and East Lothian.

We are excited to play a crucial role in bringing the very best full fibre broadband connectivity to rural areas in Scotland, as part of our mission to bridge the digital divide.

We are grateful for the support of The Scottish National Investment Bank, HCOB and Gresham House as we continue to build and grow GoFibre.”

Ailsa Young, Investment Director of Innovation at the SNIB, said:

“GoFibre is a great example of a Scottish scale-up that is targeting growth through delivering tangible local impact. We live in an increasingly digital world where high-speed, reliable internet is essential for accessing services and building and maintaining connections.

Broadband is a critical service for businesses and communities. This continues to be an important sector for us, so we’re delighted to support GoFibre as it delivers important connectivity to the north east of Scotland.”

The big challenge for GoFibre now will be in the need to scale up their operations at pace, albeit without allowing costs to get out of control or deliverability to suffer, which is always a difficult challenge for any business and one that has in the past caused problems for some other rural-focused network operators (e.g. a few years back Gigaclear faced challenges with several government contracts).

At the same time, GoFibre has also committed to leaving a lasting legacy in communities. As part of its roll-out, the company will launch a further round of its GoFurther Fund, with up to £250,000 in grants being made available to local causes in the north east of Scotland and up to £150,000 in the Borders/East Lothian (i.e. focused on their roll-out locations).

Customers of the new GoFibre service, once live over the next few years, can expect to pay from £22.50 per month for a 150Mbps (30Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term with an included wireless router, which rises to £33 for their top 1000Mbps (100Mbps upload) plan. The latter also comes with a bonus Wi-Fi extender (this can optionally be taken on other plans at extra cost).