Bristol-based lawyers at international legal practice Osborne Clarke have advised internet service provider Community Fibre on a £25m financing round led by the government-backed National Digital Infrastructure Fund (NDIF).
Partner Simon Jones, pictured right, and associate Katharine Ramsay, pictured below, worked on the deal, under which ultra-fast full-fibre connectivity will be rolled out to around 100,000 homes across London by next year.
It comes hot on the heels of the team’s work advising specialist private equity fund manager YFM Equity Partners on its investment in EIKON Group, a provider of digital post-production services to the motion picture and broadcast industry.
Community Fibre, which is based in London, is the first company to receive funding from NDIF, which is investing alongside RPMI Railpen, a pension fund with £28bn of assets under management and an existing long-term institutional investor in Community Fibre.
NDIF and Railpen have subscribed for £18m and £7m respectively of new equity in Community Fibre.
Just 3% of UK homes are connected to full-fibre broadband, which has the capacity to provide gigabit-capable download speeds. Community Fibre will use the new funding to further expand its coverage across the capital, continuing to target social housing estates as a priority.
The funding more than doubles the investment in Community Fibre to date and marks a significant milestone in the company’s target of connecting 500,000 homes in London with full fibre by 2022.
Osborne Clarke partner Rob Wood, based in its Reading office, also advised on the deal, the latest in a series of transaction supported by the firm’s market-leading venture capital team. 
The EIKON funding will be used to support the London-based group’s expansion into the US, where a new state-of-the-art studio will be built in Los Angeles, as well as continued investment in the development of technology to enhance service delivery to customers.
EIKON has cutting edge technology facilities in London and Los Angeles, offering digital mastering and localisation services to the film, broadcast and online media industry.
Clients include Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, CBS and Netflix.
Now in its fifth year, EIKON has doubled revenues year on year and grown from a staff of six to 100.
Its recent work includes the worldwide localisation and mastering for hit films including Peter Rabbit, The Greatest Showman, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, A Quiet Place and Red Sparrow.
