Companies
Space World group to raise funds for new fibre ventures
Summary
- Space World is evaluating various routes to raise funds to channel into new ventures Constl and Ranext that will offer fibre connectivity between data centres and in-building plug-and-play fibre network to ISPs.
Space World group is evaluating various routes to raise funds to channel into new ventures Constl and Ranext that will offer fibre connectivity between data centres and in-building plug-and-play fibre network for internet services providers.
Founder Ankit Goel told Mint in an exclusive interaction that the company will go to market in the next three to six months to raise funds but was yet to decide the route it would take and the equity it intended to dilute. “We've begun evaluations to this effect," he said.
The passive digital infrastructure provider is building a greenfield fibre network covering Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, where 80% of the country’s data usage comes from. It offers fibre connectivity to data centres in these cities, besides connecting them with one another through a dedicated fibre network.
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“In addition to building metro access network, we’re also building national long distance (network). The first stretch of Delhi to Mumbai is already connected and within the next year, 13 metro cities will have similar connectivity map," he said. The venture called Contl aims to provide low-latency, high-speed data connectivity to customers that will primarily be data centers, hyperscalers, internet service providers and mobile network operators, a niche space where it plans to take a disproportionate share.
“We’re also building a platform called digital infra as a service (DIAS), which will be plug-and-play for enterprises, offering them bandwidth on-demand through a platform. We’re 6-9 months away from bringing this to market," Goel said.
The company, which also provides in-building digital infrastructure solutions, primarily neutral fibre within premises which will enable telecom operators or users or ISPs to offer their services directly to consumers in buildings or housing complexes, without the need for laying down their own network. The service called Ranext will derive its revenues from the ISPs.
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Brookfield-sponsored Tower Infrastructure Trust (Tower InvIT) bought Space Teleinfra Pvt Ltd, an arm of Space World group, in a milestone-based deal for ₹900 crore, which started in mid-2021 and was completed earlier this year. The group has an optical fibre-based infrastructure venture. Space Telelink Ltd, Horizon Performance Polyurethane Pvt Ltd, Ranext Technologies Pvt Ltd, Space World Digital Solutions Pvt Ltd (Constl), Space World Data Centres Pvt Ltd are part of the group.
