Funding in a not-so-fun market

RadioFrame Networks (www.radioframe.com) and TrinTel Communications (www.trintel.com) have recently announced separate funding agreements totaling more than $60 million.

TrinTel secured $50 million in equity funding, while RadioFrame completed two rounds of fund raising with $11 million. John Day, TrinTel president & CEO, said his company started to raise money in the first quarter, but hit a bump in March when tower stocks stumbled.

“We had to recoup and reassess our situation,” he said. But, after heading back into the field, the company ended up getting more funding than they initially anticipated. Instead of the $35 million they wanted, the company ended up taking $50 million.

Austin Ventures (www.austinventures.com), GE Capital Telecom (www.gecapital.com) and Capital Resource Partners (www.crp.com) lead the equity-funding round for TrinTel.

Day said the money would be used to build out TrinTel’s backlog of strategic sites and build-to-suit agreements.

“The investment community likes the fact that we’re more organic than acquisition,” he said. “We feel that most of the money will end up in a hard asset like a tower. That’s what we’re primarily trying to do.”

Jeff Brown, RadioFrame president & CEO, said his company would use its funding to continue to grow the company. However, he said, the high-profile of the investment partners probably meant more than the dollar signs.

“More important, I think, is the strategic benefit of these players in terms of opening doors for us,” Brown said. “We’ve solidified our true financing needs in terms of dollars and cents, but I think we also grabbed the imagination of a lot of people who look at these visionary companies that have invested in us.”

RadioFrame’s funding came from a joint effort between Craig McCaw’s COM Investments, Ignition (www.ignitionpartners.com), Nextel Communications (www.nextel.com) and Orange Ventures (www.orange.com), among others.

Brown said the ability to provide in-building coverage for both voice and data sparked the interest of RadioFrame’s investors, even with today’s bumpy market.

Day said that despite the uneven market, he is optimistic that TrinTel could continue to secure funds if needed.

“We constantly look at the markets to determine if there’s other funds available,” he said. “We spend quite a bit of time reviewing our alternatives in financing and we’ll continue to do so.”

Brown said he also wasn’t worried about securing funding in today’s market.

“There’s a lot of money out there,” Brown said. “And, there’s always money for good companies. If you maintain your focus on quality and providing a good product out to the marketplace, you’re going to be able to get the money you need to do your job.”