Venturing & Investments
All the latest insight, news and analysis on venturing and investment activity surrounding leading telecom and infra players.
UK gov plots £330m boost to subsea cable protections
UK government’s long-awaited Defence Investment Plan includes fresh funding to improve subsea infrastructure resilience, including new public-private partnerships and upgraded defence fleets.
DTCP makes maiden Defence Fund investment
Deutsche Telekom-affiliated investor backs drone software developer Six Robotics. Move is the first that DTCP has made via recently created Defence Fund, as it seeks to tap into growing European military spending.
Spanish government green lights Telefónica-led Gigafactory bid
Spanish government gives the go-ahead for public-private venture that will lead European AI Gigafactory project. Private shareholders include Telefónica, ACS, and Santander.
SoftBank picks France for €75bn mega-bet on European data centres
Japanese investment group unveils multi-billion euro programme to build out French data centre portfolio, amidst aggressive AI infra expansion in Europe and beyond. Investment among wave of digital infra projects that have emerged in and around recent Choose France Summit…
From danger zone to digital powerhouse: Kearney maps Europe’s path to telecom recovery
Analysis: Europe’s telecoms sector has built extensively but failed to monetise, risking stagnation without urgent structural intervention. Kearney’s comprehensive diagnostic guides on how regionalisation, network resilience, strategic private finance partnerships, and other remedies can revitalise the sector’s finances and the continent’s digital economy.
Vodacom’s IoT bet ‘still in startup’ seven years in
Group CEO Shameel Joosub says IoT.nxt is yet to break even, but producing confidence-inspiring results and (modestly) contributing to Vodacom’s ‘beyond mobile’ expansion.
UK’s Digital 9 enters ‘next phase’ of prolonged wind-down
Troubled investment group continues efforts to eke out value from its remaining digital infra assets, advancing its long-running wind-down process. However, future of broadcast infra player Arqiva remains a significant source of uncertainty, and D9 concedes it may not complete its sell-off plans for another three years…
Blackstone targets ready-made data centres with new investment platform
Private equity group moves to launch IPO for new digital infra investment platform, seeking newly constructed data centres while avoiding prospective (and unproven) projects. Move comes as Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman seeks to build on one of the investor’s “best years yet” in infra…
Spain’s Sateliot launches €100m fundraise to ‘accelerate’ satellite rollout
Sateliot kicks off Series-C round, seeking fresh funding to accelerate satellite deployment programme and enable the launch of ‘sovereign’ commercial NB-IoT services later this year…
France’s InfraVia preps €8bn warchest for digital infra
French investment group closes latest European infrastructure fund at €8bn, with plans to transform mid-market businesses into sovereign European “champions”.
Deutsche Telekom rejigs charging infra venture
The telco’s EV charging point side-business Comfortcharge once had grand ambitions for a national-scale buildout, but has now been reassigned within its corporate centre, in a reflection of reduced scope and refocus.
UK’s Nscale closes $2bn fundraise to expand data centre platform
AI infrastructure player closes multibillion-dollar financing round to help accelerate its expansion of data centres in Europe and beyond.
Telefónica, Vodafone Spain close out Fiberpass stake sale
Telco duo finalise divestment of a 40% stake in their Spanish fibre joint venture to AXA Investment Managers, enabling them to reduce debt and advance their distinct fibre strategies…