NewPath Networks, a Seattle-based provider of wireless infrastructure, has reeled in $30 million to fuel its continued growth, according to a statement today. New York private equity firm Charterhouse Group invested $20 million in NewPath, and Denver-based venture group Meritage Funds provided the rest of the money.
NewPath, founded in 2004, is capitalizing on consumers’ demand for wireless signals wherever they go and the desire of major telecom firms like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to keep their customers happy. Those major carriers hire NewPath to design and operate networks of wireless antennas and underground fiber-optic cables to provide wireless coverage in areas, say, too remote for a standard cellular towers or where such towers are deemed an eyesore. (Yet the firm has recently run into resistance in Scottsdale, AZ, where officials want to police the firm’s plans to install 260 antennas and bury 100-200 miles of fiber optic cable under city grounds, according to this story in the Arizona Republic.)
“Charterhouse and Meritage’s telecom knowledge and capital resources enable NewPath to continue on its rapid organic growth trajectory,” says Mike Kavanagh, co-founder and CEO of NewPath, in a statement. “Increasing wireless network capacity demands necessitated by the growth in data and multi-media applications make this a very exciting time to focus on expanding our footprint and pursuing strategic acquisitions.”
Kavanagh co-founded NewPath in 2004 with company chief operating officer Shawn Cooprider. Cooprider cut his teeth in the wireless industry with firms such as pioneering Seattle cell phone company McCaw Cellular Communications, and his fortunes skyrocketed dramatically when AT&T gobbled up McCaw in a $11.5 billion buyout in 1994.
