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U.K. operator aims to roll out fibre to an additional 40,000 premises in 2016.
Gigaclear announced on Thursday that it has secured a €25 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) that will part fund its plans to roll out fibre broadband to 40,000 U.K. properties this year.
The U.K. operator, which specialises in providing high-speed broadband to rural areas, said the funding will cover around a third of the investment required to carry out the project.
Gigaclear has installed fibre to 15,000 properties in rural parts of the counties of Oxfordshire, Essex, Northamptonshire, Berkshire and Gloucestershire, and has started work on an additional 10,000. It said it aims to reach at least 40,000 new properties during 2016, but did not specify the locations.
"This level of support is a ringing endorsement of Gigaclear as a business. EIB clearly has faith in our model and vision," said company founder and chief executive Matthew Hare, in a statement.
"We have estimated that 1.5 million properties in the U.K. could benefit from our services and we want to reach those people as quickly as possible, but we’re a capital intensive business. So this loan is a landmark moment for us and an important next step in our expansion strategy," Hare said.
Gigaclear said the loan is one of the largest of its kind awarded to a U.K. company. It has been awarded the maximum available to companies under the ‘InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators’ MidCap Growth Finance scheme, it said.
"Over the last five years the European Investment Bank has provided nearly €12 billion to improve broadband and telecommunications across Europe," said Jonathan Taylor, European Investment Bank vice president.
"We are pleased to support Gigaclear’s activities in our first targeted support for rural communications in the U.K.," he added.
