onwave, one of Europe’s largest providers of satellite broadband services to the residential market, today announces that it has raised €4.15 million to fund the development of its new generation of pan-European high quality satellite broadband, TV and telephone services. 

 

The investment was facilitated by The Halo Business Angel Partnership, which matched angel investors, Nucleus Venture Partners with onwave.

 

onwave is also announcing the creation of 30 new jobs as part of its European growth strategy.  These positions will be filled over the next 12 months and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, as well as offices in Galway. The new positions will be in the areas of R&D, project management, finance, sales, information technology and customer care.

 

Simultaneously, onwave has opened an office in the UK and will be creating additional jobs as part of this move. The UK office will be used as a base to support management and sales for the region.

 

A three year broadband utility contract, worth more than €5m, was previously signed by onwave, which gives it pan-European rights to sell Eutelsat’s next-generation Tooway™ satellite services throughout Europe.  This will provide for the bundling of digital services over a single high-quality connection via the world’s most powerful satellite, KA-SAT which went into service recently, on the 31st May.

 

The company was founded in 2008 by Kevin Ryan and Seán Óg Brennan in response to the lack of a cost effective rural broadband service.  To date, they have built a national network of residential and business broadband customers right across Ireland.

 

Kevin Ryan, CEO, onwave commented, “We want a world in which people are no longer disadvantaged just because they live outside the main urban centres.  Access to high quality and competitively priced digital TV, broadband and home phone packages should be universal to everyone and not limited by a location.  Our goal is to deliver high quality services and a competitive landscape for all customers.

 

“We will guarantee quality of service and speed of connections, backed up by our dedicated customer service team, which is based at our headquarters in Mullingar.  We will do what we say, when we say and in so doing, re-set the service expectations of customers to a new level.  We are working towards equal access and sensible charges for all.”

 

John Phelan of the HALO Business Angel Partnership said, “It’s great to see Irish businesses like onwave moving onto an international stage.  In a relatively short period of time, they’ve built a business from zero to becoming a significant European player. This investment gives onwave the financial resources to capitalise on its ambitious plans and the track record to date suggests that it has the wherewithal to deliver. Dublin BIC, manager of the Halo Business Angel Partnership, has a European footprint and is actively networking onwave with other EU BIC’s and helping with on-the-ground local partnerships.”

 

Alan Phelan, founding partner from Nucleus Venture Partners said, “We see huge potential to scale this business quickly across Europe and this was one of the key factors that enticed us to invest.  Coming from a telecoms entrepreneurial background, I recognised the potent mix of marketing, proven execution and excellent technology that underscores onwave’s ability to succeed.”

 

Kevin Ryan added, “We are delighted to have added our new investors, Alan Phelan and Sean McKeague to the board.  They bring a proven entrepreneurial track record and international execution pedigree to onwave.  The HALO Business Angel Partnership funding process worked extremely well for us in matching the finance and relevant expertise which will help us going forward.”

 

 

 

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About onwave

onwave is Europe’s leading provider of satellite broadband and telecommunications services to homes. It provides consistent, reliable and affordable broadband internet, television and telephony services for home and businesses over satellite, not just in certain places, but everywhere. onwave is driven by its determination to eliminate the digital divide between urban and rural communities in Europe and to become synonymous with guaranteed customer service. http://www.onwave.ie/

 

 

 

About HALO Business Angel Partnership

The Halo Business Angel Partnership (HBAP) has completed 76 deals worth €28m. Of this €14m has been private Angel funds complimenting and leveraging local Seed Funds and Enterprise Ireland funding.

 

HBAP is a joint initiative between Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and the Irish Business and Innovation Centres. It is managed by Dublin Business Innovation Centre as part of its ongoing support to start-up and developing enterprises.

 

The Halo Business Angel Partnership, through the Irish BIC’s, with offices in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Galway provides a nationwide business matching service to select companies.

 

 

About Nucleus Venture Partners

Nucleus Venture Partners was founded in 2010 by two successful entrepreneurs Alan Phelan and Sean McKeague. Nucleus is the perfect partner to ground-breaking ideas or technologies. We have all grown successful technology companies, so we have the experience and capital to help make your idea into a fast growing business.

 

 

 

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