Chrysalis, Meritus Invest $2.5 Million in SinglePipe Communications
Monday November 05, 2007
Venture fund deal shows that high-tech invesments can occur in rural areas
Chrysalis Ventures and Meritus Ventures recently announced a deal to invest $2.5 million in SinglePipe Communications, a fully integrated facilities-based wholesale communications provider of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.
The $2.5 million
investment -- $1.5 million from Chrysalis and $1 million from Meritus - will allow the company to accelerate the roll-out of
its services, primarily to rural communities in the southeastern United States, and provide feature rich, wholesale
VoIP services across its own
network to underserved rural areas that currently have little or no access to those services.
KHIC helped establish Meritus, which is first, and currently the only, Rural Business Investment Company in the United States.
"We are
thrilled to welcome Meritus to our investor group. The rural focus of Meritus Ventures fits perfectly with SinglePipe's focus on
providing the latest voice technology to underserved rural areas in the southeast," said SinglePipe President/CEO Matt Phillips.
SinglePipe
provides turnkey VoIP services to local telephone companies, Internet service providers, rural cable television providers, and other
information technology service providers. As a result, these companies are able to provide the latest voice technology to rural small- and medium-sized
business customers and residential customers.
SinglePipe's
existing private network allows it to provide wholesale local telephone service at a lower cost compared to traditional voice options, as
well as to offer the rapid and cost-effective introduction of new features and services at no additional cost to its wholesale providers who in turn
can pass those savings on to their rural customer base.
Model for attracting high-tech investments, jobs
In addition to
assisting SinglePipe and bringing much-needed, competitively priced, high-tech communications services to rural areas, Meritus believes
investments such as this one can become a conduit for traditional private equity into rural America.
"We want
everyone to recognize that high-tech businesses can be created and flourish in rural areas," said L. Ray Moncrief, Meritus Ventures' fund
manager and executive vice president and COO of KHIC. "As the first and
only Rural Business Investment Company in the United States, Meritus is proving
that quality private equity transactions can be done in non-traditional areas.
"By working
with private companies, venture funds, and government entities such as the USDA's Rural Business Programs, we can bring
new economy investments and jobs to Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas,
and the Appalachian counties of Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia,
North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, and Mississippi."
Rural entrepreneurship
Carlos "Doc" Carpenter was SinglePipe's original president and CEO. A native of Manchester, he has more 20 years experience in the telecom industry and founded three other telecom ventures in the Southeast United States -- NorthStar Technology, a PCS provider; KIH Online, an Internet ServiceProvider and Touchstone Communications, a Kentucky competitive local exchange carrier. Carpenter also founded College Cable Services, a private cable television company that provided private cable and data services to businesses and educational institutions.
Although still involved with SinglePipe, Carpenter is forming a new company at KHIC's business incubator in London.
"My dad was an entrepreneur - he started a cable business in the mid-1960s," Carpenter said. "I got married and was making about $8 an hour working for a large cable company and decided to make a change.
"I enjoy the creative aspects and the challenge of being an entrepreneur. A lot of people overlook rural areas, but I see them as an opportunity."
About Meritus Ventures, L.P.:Meritus is a private, for-profit, venture capital fund established to make equity investments in private companies in predominantly rural areas in 11
states in southern and central Appalachia, including Kentucky. It is the first, and currently the only, Rural Business Investment Company in the
United States. For more information, visit www.meritusventures.com.