Hyperoptic secures £250m in new backing

BROADBAND operator Hyperoptic has received £250m in new backing to challenge BT by connecting millions of homes with fibre-optic lines.

The debt funding will be provided by a consortium of eight banks led by BNP Paribas and ING. It comes on top of £100m pledged by the same lenders last year. Hyperoptic, which is owned by its founders and private investors including George Soros, said it has now secured enough funding to hit its target of two million homes by 2022. Further cash will be required to reach its 2025 ambition of five million.

The operator has not disclosed how many homes it has connected to date. It has focused on blocks of flats to keep costs low and the returns high, although chairman Boris Ivanovic said Hyperoptic had begun trials connecting houses.

Its accounts for 2017 show sales of £16.6m, putting it ahead of other broadband challengers such as Gigaclear, which is focused on rural communities.

A clutch of young firms, including a joint venture between Talktalk and M&G, are attempting to make inroads against BT’S subsidiary Openreach, by providing faster connections than are possible via copper telephone lines.