Internet service provider Tikona has raised funds to the tune of $45 million from investors including International Financial Corporation. (IFC).
IFC led the fresh round with an investment of $25 million. The balance $20 million was put in by existing investors. The company said in a statement, “Tikona is pleased to announce the successful completion of USD45 million fund-raise. The round was led by IFC with a USD25 million investment and existing investors, funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Oak Investment partners, Everstone Capital and L&T Infrastructure Finance Co Ltd, collectively invested in USD20 million.”
The company received FIPB’s nod in September this year for the proposed funding. On 4 September, the government allowed Tikona to raise Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) through an equity sale to raise foreign equity participation in the firm to 73.76 per cent from the earlier 72.58 per cent.
The company said that the capital raised will be used to expand Tikona’s broadband network in existing and new cities. Tikona MD and CEO Prakash Bajpai said, “We are pleased to have IFC as an investor given their understanding of the broadband sector across the globe and long term approach to business investments.”
The company stated it has built a low cost, high capacity, broadband solution and is already serving over 2,25,000 homes in the top 25 cities of the country. It claims that the business model is now ready for more cities. Tikona also owns 20 MHz, 4G spectrum in 2,300 MHz band in 5 telecom circles of Gujarat, UP-East, UP-West, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, covering around 28 per cent of the population of India, positioning it well for 4G data services in the future.