Mar 25, 2021

Webcapitalriesgo 24/03/2021 Press release NAUTA PORTFOLIO COMPANY CONNECTED2FIBER RAISES $12M IN SERIES B FUNDING TO ACCELERATE PLATFORM AND CONNECTIVITY ECOSYSTEM GROWTH. Connected2Fiber , The Industry Cloud for Connectivity, announced today that it has secured $12 million in Series B financing led by Harbert Growth Partners as well as current investors Ascent Venture Partners, Nauta Capital, and Osage Venture Partners. The new funding will be used to invest in the organization’s go-to-market operations across sales, marketing, and customer success teams as well as accelerate the product roadmap for its platform, The Connected World. Product investments will deliver new ecosystem integrations, buyer and seller capabilities that will include additional APIs, and build out of the next phase of location truth within the platform. Connected2Fiber will also introduce new AI and analytic capabilities as well as real-time data connectors that feed The Connected World’s application and analytic suite. “Buying and selling network in today’s fragmented environment is complex and slow, leading to missed opportunities, challenging customer experiences and lower profits on all sides of the equation,” comments Ben Edmond, Founder and CEO at Connected2Fiber. “Our platform continues to solve the most difficult challenges associated with network transactions by providing buyers and sellers with a location-specific, data-driven blueprint of their addressable market and then automating critical processes, resulting in smarter and faster decisions for both parties. Our success and growth within both the buyer and seller community has produced an ever-expanding platform ecosystem and, with this new investment, we’ll not only be able to scale our selling efforts but continue to innovate to provide additional analytical insight and global reach.” Connected2Fiber’s growth is reflective of a number of trends occurring in the connectivity industry. With tens of thousands of network providers around the world, a virtually limitless number of consumers, and the frequent need for partnerships to support selling and delivery efforts, network transactions have historically been complicated. Traditionally, there has not been much in the way of reliable data and robust applications to improve and accelerate network buying and selling decisions. Rather, there’s been an overreliance on manual processes and “best guesses” in executing transactions. The inefficiencies that result from not being able to clearly visualize market supply of network and demand for it coupled with slow, manual approaches to leveraging the insight for network buying and selling cost the industry billions of dollars every year. This problem is magnified by accelerated demand for network, driven by the continual emergence of cloud-based services that support use cases such as remote working and learning as well as other considerably growing industry trends such as 5G and SD-WAN. For market participants to maximize profitable growth prospects and capitalize on an ever-increasing appetite for connectivity, network supply from their unique, proprietary perspective and market demand must be easily discoverable with trust at a location level and operational processes must be automated. The Connected World platform delivers this experience and powers digital transformation in the buying and selling processes of companies from global carriers to rural telephone and cable TV operators to managed service providers of every focus and size. Recent Connected2Fiber growth metrics include: Serving the top 10 fiber infrastructure providers and MSOs in the United States Serving 4 out of the top 5 LECs and network-oriented managed service providers in the United States 108% jump in platform users over the past year 390% year-over-year increase in locations managed by customers Over 5,800 network operators profiled around the world and growing 213% year-over-year increase in unique entity locations tracked globally “Connected2Fiber is positioned to capitalize on the need for digital transformation among service providers, which is significant given the dramatic spike in network demand and innovation within the connectivity industry,” comments Tom Roberts, General Partner at Harbert Growth Partners. “As key network trends evolve, much like we’re seeing with cloud, 5G and SD-WAN, the ability to transact in real-time, combined with actionable intelligence as it relates to network supply and demand, is essential to positively transforming buying and selling. Connected2Fiber leads the industry in providing critical, location-specific data as well as a platform to leverage that intelligence to automate key network buying and selling processes, ultimately creating an impressive ecosystem of buyers and sellers. We’re thrilled to lead the Series B round and to support them as they continue to innovate and help digitally transform this essential industry.” Connected2Fiber’s previous equity rounds total $15 million, bringing total funding to date to $27 million in equity. For more information about Connected2Fiber and its ecosystem of hundreds of service providers building automation into their buying and selling processes, visit www.connected2fiber.com. About Connected2Fiber Connected2Fiber is The Industry Cloud for Connectivity. The Connected World platform details and displays deep, trusted location-based insight and empowers users to leverage that insight to automate network buying and selling processes. Visit Connected2Fiber on the web at www.connected2fiber.com or follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/connected2fiber/.