Fast internet provider GigaComm raising $100m; Morgan Stanley in
Four-year-old telco GigaComm, which is run and backed by former Macquarie Capital suits, is sounding investors for a chunky raising to bankroll the infrastructure it needs to get into a million Australian homes.
Sophearom En, a former Macquarie Capital operative, co-founded GigaComm. Eamon Gallagher
It is understood GigaComm has held talks with a small group of prospective backers in recent weeks. Sources said Morgan Stanley’s bankers were leading the talks, although the company hired Macquarie Capital’s TMT team earlier in the year to provide strategic advice on funding options.
GigaComm was after $100 million, which would be five times the size of its previous round from February. Sources said GigaComm’s preference was to raise the money from a select number of infrastructure-minded funds willing to cut sizeable cheques, instead of adding a long list of new names to its register.
It isbacked by Melbourne-based fund manager Palisade Impact, which was founded by former MacCap Asia boss Jeremy Wernert and Steve Gross in 2021 – with seed capital from the bigger Palisade Investment Partners.
Palisade Impact first invested in GigaComm last year and underwrote this year’s $20 million raising. Wernert sits on the telco newbie’s board, alongside former Telstra executives Judy Slatyer and Gerry Moriarty. The latter has also served as a senior adviser to Macquarie Capital on telco investments.
GigaComm is building an optical fibre and fixed wireless network, which it reckons can deliver its internet customers download speeds that are 10 times faster than the Australian average. Its pitch to customers – both residential and business – is about bypassing the national broadband network to gain faster internet speeds and compete
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