Trooli receive £67.5m for UK full fibre rollout

Broadband ISP Trooli has managed to secure £67.5m in funding through a consortium of lenders in the form of a senior debt facility.

The ISP, currently undertaking plans to connect premises in the south-east of England to its new gigabit-capable fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network, said that the money will help them to connect 1 million premises in the UK by 2024.

Trooli has already deployed its FTTP connections to over 100,000 homes and businesses so far.

The ISP previously announced a target to connect 170,000 premises by the end of this year, with the intermediary milestone of connecting 400,000 premises by the end of 2022, before hitting 1 million by December 2024.

The new deal will more than double the number of staff at Trooli, adding 200 jobs to its current 170.

Until recently, Trooli had been supported by a £5m senior debt facility agreement with NatWest Bank as well as funding worth €30m the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF). However, the alternative network provider requires much more in funding to achieve its long-term goals.

Trooli’s £67.5m senior debt facility was facilitated by the CEBF with “attractive terms” and “potential for a further increase depending on business needs.”

Trooli CFO, Ashley Atkins, said: “We are committed to growing our network and meeting the need for really fast, reliable internet connections, especially in underserved rural areas.

Securing this level of funding not only underpins our ambitious growth plans but is also a vote of confidence in Trooli as a business and the product we offer.

“Demand for our full fibre broadband has been extremely strong over the past year and we expect that to continue into the future.

“Despite us running a small, targeted process, the offer has been many times oversubscribed. This fresh investment clearly demonstrates that the banking community shares our vision.”

Mark Jackson of UK broadband portal ISPreview, said: “We think that this funding, given their semi-rural build focus, is probably enough to get them over the 200,000 premises mark, but they’ll still need a lot more to reach the million mark.”