Listen to this articleLiveOak Fiber has closed a $425 million credit facility backed by Oak Hill Advisors and Palistar Capital to speed up its all-fiber network rollout. The capital will expand high speed broadband access across additional markets in Florida and Georgia for homes, businesses, and multi tenant properties.
LiveOak Fiber, a Brunswick, Georgia-based “fiber to the home” (FTTH) broadband provider founded in 2022, has secured a $425 million credit facility to fuel aggressive network expansion across Florida and Georgia. This debt financing positions the company to accelerate deployment of its all-fiber infrastructure in existing and planned Southeast markets, targeting homes, businesses, and multi tenant communities in traditionally underserved areas.
What is LiveOak Fiber?
LiveOak Fiber operates as a premier all-fiber broadband service provider focused on delivering lightning fast, reliable connectivity while investing directly in the communities it serves. The company emphasizes a fiercely local operating model, with full time local teams handling installation, customer support, and community engagement. It has built a 99.99% reliable network delivering the fastest speeds and lowest latency in its footprint.
Key operational milestones include:
- Creation of more than 150 local jobs.
- Certification as a Great Place to Work.
- Surpassing 25,000 subscribers (as of the April 2025 milestone), reflecting rapid adoption across residential, business, and multi tenant segments.
- Targeted footprint in key Southeast areas, including Northwest Florida (e.g., Pensacola, Panama City Beach), Georgia coastal regions (e.g., Tybee Island, Skidaway Island, Golden Isles), and expanding markets in Florida and Georgia.
Leadership is anchored by experienced telecom operators. Shane Schilling serves as CEO (appointed February 2025, having joined in 2023 as CTO and later COO), bringing expertise in networking, operations, fiber construction, and service delivery. Steve Smith is Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, driving revenue strategy and customer scaling. The executive team also includes Ryan Hawes as CFO and Jennifer Powers as Chief People Officer.
Prior capital raises have supported this momentum. The company received an initial $150 million equity commitment from InfraRed Capital Partners in 2022, followed by additional co-investments with InfraRed and MEAG (asset manager for Munich Re), plus $250 million in financing underwritten by J.P. Morgan in 2024. These infusions enabled early network build out, with over 1,000 miles of fiber deployed in earlier phases.
The facility is provided by Oak Hill Advisors (OHA) and Palistar Capital. OHA, the private markets platform of T. Rowe Price, is a global credit-focused manager with approximately $111 billion in assets under management across private credit and related strategies. Palistar Capital specializes in digital infrastructure investments through direct ownership and innovative financing solutions.
J.P. Morgan served as advisor on strategic alternatives and acted as Structuring Agent. Legal counsel included Clifford Chance (representing LiveOak Fiber and InfraRed Capital Partners) and Milbank (representing the lenders).
The facility provides flexible capital explicitly earmarked for network expansion, enabling LiveOak to extend its all-fiber footprint, accelerate build-out in current and new Southeast markets, and scale services across single family homes, businesses, and multi tenant communities.
How will LiveOak use the funds?
The credit facility represents a strong vote of confidence from infrastructure focused lenders in LiveOak’s platform and execution. InfraRed Capital Partners, a long standing backer, highlighted the partnership’s success and the facility as validation of LiveOak as a “fully integrated growth engine with substantial long term value.”
CEO Shane Schilling noted the company’s rapid expansion to date and emphasized the local model as a differentiator: “We have full time local teams on the ground delivering installation, support, and community engagement, and with this new funding, we are positioned to accelerate our build-out and continue gaining momentum across our footprint.”
Founder and CRO Steve Smith added: “LiveOak Fiber is being built to scale across every customer type, from single family homes to businesses to multi tenant communities. This investment enables us to continue to drive lasting value while consistently delivering a premium customer experience across our markets.”
Proceeds will directly support:
- Accelerated FTTH deployment to increase homes and businesses passed.
- Expansion into additional Southeast markets to address ongoing demand for reliable high speed internet.
- Enhancement of digital infrastructure that powers economic growth, remote work, education, AI enabled applications, smart homes, and business productivity.
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How is LiveOak Fiber different?
LiveOak differentiates itself through hyper local execution, community rooted teams, and a pure all-fiber architecture that delivers superior reliability and performance. Unlike legacy providers, the company prioritizes underserved Southeast communities, treating internet as essential fourth utility infrastructure. Its track record of subscriber growth, job creation, and customer centric operations, coupled with 99.99% uptime, establishes it as a trusted long term connectivity platform.
The facility strengthens LiveOak’s ability to capture market share in a region experiencing population growth, digital transformation, and rising demand for symmetrical multi gigabit speeds. By scaling network density and geographic reach, the company is positioned to drive further subscriber penetration while maintaining its premium service standards.
This $425 million credit facility significantly bolsters LiveOak Fiber’s balance sheet and execution capacity, enabling a step-change in expansion velocity shortly after achieving the 25,000-subscriber milestone. It builds directly on prior equity and debt raises, creating a robust capital structure for sustained growth in Florida and Georgia.
With dedicated local teams, proven operational excellence, and backing from specialized infrastructure investors (InfraRed, MEAG, OHA, and Palistar), LiveOak is well equipped to deliver long term value: connecting more communities, boosting local economies, and providing the reliable, high performance internet essential for modern life and business. The financing underscores the company’s trajectory as a leading regional FTTH provider capable of scaling efficiently across diverse customer segments in the Southeast.
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