Tarana raises $50mn to sustain growth in wireless broadband technology
Basil Alwan of Tarana
Tarana Wireless, Inc., announced that Digital Alpha Advisors, has joined Tarana’s investor group. The $50 million (€46.92 million) up round led by Digital Alpha is focused on both accelerating Tarana’s growth in sales and deployment of G1 (generation 1), its next-generation fixed wireless access (ngFWA) platform, as well as expanding R&D investment. This will thereby help to build on Tarana’s foundational advances in wireless broadband technology. Tarana’s valuation increase reflects the Tarana’s performance and market traction.
Digital Alpha’s interest in Tarana stems from an investment thesis around the roll-up of wireless internet service providers. “As we developed our wireless ISP investment thesis, we became aware of Tarana’s breakthrough technology, and each operator’s story underscored how ngFWA is fundamentally changing network performance and operator economics. Tarana’s G1 platform supplies the key missing ingredient in enabling wireless ISPs to offer highly competitive broadband, take share, and grow value in their businesses at a months-not-years deployment pace competitive technologies just cannot match.” says Rick Shrotri, founder and managing partner at Digital Alpha.
In addition to traditional equity investments into wireless internet services providers, Digital Alpha is also offering a novel revenue-share financing solution to Tarana customers looking to expand their deployments of G1. Digital Alpha’s deep domain and industry skills makes them suited to fund infrastructure deployments that are bridging the digital divide and enabling connectivity transformations across local communities. To date, Digital Alpha has funded existing Tarana customers such as Element 8 and Wisper ISP and is looking forward to partnering with Tarana to offer its funding model in pursuit of recent market opportunities and additional wireless internet service providers.
Since its launch of G1 in late 2021, Tarana has seen growth in demand for its novel ngFWA platform. G1 is now deployed by more than 270 service providers in 19 countries, and in 41 of the 50 states in US. Infrastructure deployments and customer installations by the thriving G1 community are accelerating across a range of applications, including closing the digital divide, upgrading subscriber speeds to increase competitiveness, and providing different capabilities where high-speed connections are limited. Revenues in G1’s full year of sales (2022) were nearly $100 million (€93.87 million), and orders plus sales continue to climb in 2023. These business fundamentals drove a 40% year-over-year increase in the Tarana’s valuation.
“Digital Alpha knows our customers’ business intimately, which has provided early insights into ngFWA and the momentum building in our business. This investment along with those in our customers makes them a natural and great partner. Our rapid growth has created more opportunities along with higher working capital requirements; this financing will play an essential role in maintaining our trajectory, supporting our customers’ continued growth, and expanding our reach globally.” says Basil Alwan, CEO, Tarana.
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