North Carolina startup Eco-Site Inc. is looking to cap its funding at $300 million — which means it needs another $110 million — in order to complete its business plan.
The Durham-based company has raised $190 million since 2017, which Chief Executive Officer Dale Carey says will be used to build new wireless towers and fund operations.
Eco-Site has expanded rapidly since its inception in 2012, growing from six to 54 full-time employees and 75 total staff.
The company builds, owns and operates hundreds of wireless infrastructure tower sites across the U.S. for T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, most of which have been built in the last two years.
Its two largest clients are T-Mobile and Verizon.
Eco-Site enters long-term agreement with these large wireless companies, acting as prime partners to build out their network.
“This is a very capital intensive business, so in order to build out our sites we have to raise capital,” said Carey.
The startup company is looking to total “about $300 million [in total funds raised] to complete the business plan,” said Carey.
The company’s largest customer is T-Mobile because of its aggressive wireless build out plan.
The company currently has “hundreds of tower sites, with hundreds more in development in 35 states and 41 markets throughout the United States.”
The company uses a variety of antenna and placement options to simplify site acquisition, installation and zoning.
“The wireless infrastructure industry, and especially Eco-Site, is experiencing exceptional growth,” said Carey.
“The pace of our expansion is indicative of our continued momentum, due in large part to the strength of our model and the abilities of our team.”
Real estate databases
According to Carey, the company uses real estate databases to “effectively solve the real estate problem” that coexist with the building of these wireless towers.
Real estate opportunities are broken down into four categories — urban, suburban, rural and high density urban — dependent upon the carrier’s needs.
These real estate databases tools help “deliver solutions in a quick and efficient manner,” said Carey.
The company has developed 100 percent of its portfolio in-house since 2014.
According to Carey, the company’s main priority for 2018 is to execute on its business plan and “fulfill builds for [its] carrier partners.”
Eco-Site’s equity partner is Atlanta-based MSouth, which invests primarily in the South with a consistent focus on management buyouts of business services, distribution, specialty manufacture, and telecommunications and media companies.
The company recently raised $90 million, which was secured March 28.
This most recent round of funding came in the form of a $30 million in private equity investment from MSouth Equity and a $60 million credit facility from a Chicago-based asset manager.
“With demand for wireless capacity increasing dramatically, Eco-Site is well-positioned to continue recent momentum and make an even bigger impact in this space,” says Barry Boniface, a partner in MSouth Equity Partners.
“Their exceptional growth rate and strong execution validate our trust in the team and their approach, and we look forward to supporting the next chapter in the Eco-Site story,” says Boniface.
Though the company headquarters are located in Durham, most of the company’s towers are not located in North Carolina.
Founded by former SpectraSite executives
Carey, Bob Glosson and Richard Stern founded Eco-Site in 2012.
All three co-founders previously served at publicly traded company SpectraSite Communications, based in Cary.
Carey served as president of U.S. Wireless, Glosson served as senior vice president of sales and marketing for tower, rooftop and in-building, and Stern served as vice president for the building division while at SpectraSite.
“We were in stealth mode for a long time, but we’ve compounded an annual growth of 396 percent over the last four years,” says Carey.
Carey credits the company’s quick growth to the people that make up his company.
“This is a born and bred North Carolina company,” said Carey. “It’s a great group of people that have worked together before.”
“We are very big on culture. We have had little turnover; only one person from our core management group has left since we started the company. We have people that enjoy being around one another. It’s an environment where people trust and care about one another,” said Carey.
“There’s a mission here that everyone has signed up for — it’s all about our people.”
