This article is a part of a larger series looking at the First Coast's emerging startups, tech innovators, lenders and players in the region's ecosystem.
Newly created Jacksonville-based IQ Fiber recently announced the completion of a major round of funding and its intent to move to the next phase of its business cycle.
The transaction provides IQ Fiber with significant equity funding to complete the first phase of its all-fiber network build, passing more than 60,000 homes in the Jacksonville area, according to a statement from the company. To talk about what's next for the company, the Business-Journal sat down with IQ Fiber CEO Ted Schremp.
What is IQ Fiber and how did you start the company?
I've been in the telecommunications industry my entire career. I just turned 50, so about 30 years now. I've worked for AT&T. I worked for one of the large cable operators, Charter Communications, which is kind of the Comcast equivalent. And then I deployed Wi-Fi and broadband services in Jakarta, Indonesia. No matter where you are on the planet, you want Wi-Fi connectivity. I moved to Jacksonville two and a half years ago to come to web.com. I spent about a year and a half there and then more recently in the past year or so, I have been working with various private equity firms on the idea of acquiring a telecommunications company. What we realized was it just really didn't make a lot of sense to do that. So we decided to create IQ Fiber here in Jacksonville. Our initial plan is to build out a network for 60,000 homes with [the potential to expand to the four county region].
Tell me a little bit about the SDC Capital Partners funding? Where are you at in your funding cycle and/or what is the next step?
This was sort of an interesting process for us. We are a startup in many respects. Meaning we don't have a network yet we were in the process of designing it, but no network, no customers, no revenue. That's a definition startup. Laying fiber is a very capital-intensive business. The commitment of capital seed-style investment doesn't really work that well for us. Because you're talking about significant outlays just to build the network. So we were really looking for a partner that would kind of flex with us... that will allow us to do in sort of venture partner parlance, a seed Series A and Series B And perhaps even Series C all in one. So that's what we did. We're certainly in the pre-build stage at this point, engineering planning and we'll be building beginning in Q1 2022.
Where do you see your company in the next couple of years?
We're going to start building in the first quarter of 2022. We're going to build out as quickly as we can. We see significant opportunity in the growth of the area... as many as 300,000 homes, and that will certainly keep us busy.
We also want to address the digital divide. The lack of broadband access for rural communities and for low-income communities. There are lots of programs focused on rural connectivity. There are new programs coming out from both the federal and the state-level around. We'd like to take an active role in those things as well. We planted our flag here in Jacksonville. I want to actively participate in building a digital economy.
What are your thoughts on the First Coast's startup and tech ecosystem?
I think you know, it's a little below the radar, right? There's plenty [of cities] that sort of toot their horns, maybe a little too loudly. And then, you know, there's sort of the underdog mentality, which we kinda have here. I came most recently from St. Louis, and I think of Jacksonville in pretty much the same way. There is more than meets the eye. There's a lot that sort of flies below the radar and that's a good thing. You know we're here in the expansive co-working space downtown, and it's amazing how vibrant and how many startups that are here. It's very encouraging.
