Ziply Fiber Expansion Gets $450 Million in Funding

Ziply Fiber has raised $450 million in funding for its ongoing fiber network expansion.

Washington state-based Ziply, which emerged out of the sale of Frontier’s Northwest business, announced the latest funding round. Executives say they will to upgrade their network, which resides across four states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Ziply’s Harold Zeits

“Since founding the company, we’ve been committed to bringing ultra-fast, reliable fiber internet to our local area neighbors and businesses and helping to close the digital divide in many rural and suburban communities across the Northwest,” Ziply CEO Harold Zeitz said. “The combination of our operational expertise and the capital raised today, positions Ziply to serve more markets than ever before.”

Fast Expansion

The funding round involves all of its main investors. That includes WaveDivision Capital, Searchlight Capital Partners, Public Sector Pension Investment Board, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Frontier sold what is now Ziply for $1.35 billion to WaveDivision (which Searchlight assisted) in 2020.

The new company initially said it would pour $500 million into network improvements. According to Ziply, the company has upgraded from copper to fiber in more than 80 markets over the last two years.

Searchlight’s Eric Zinterhofer

“We originally partnered with the Ziply Fiber team to provide reliable, quality fiber internet access in the Northwest,” said Eric Zinterhofer, founding partner at Searchlight Capital Partners. “Harold and the team at Ziply have exceeded our expectations, and they will continue to deliver high-performance, fiber-based connectivity to more markets at a time when the need for best-in-class symmetrical speeds has never been higher.”

In addition, Ziply announced two promotions. Chris Denzin moved from residential and small business leader to chief operational officer. That puts him in charge of both residential and commercial sales. Rob Griffith has moved to chief of fiber design and construction. The former CenturyLink implementation leader will look after Ziply’s ongoing fiber network buildout.

Ziply in 2021 launched an agent program which included more than 20 channel partners, including national TSDs.