Helios Towers Africa Funding, Investors & Competitors

Bharti Airtel Ltd is a telecommunications company. The company's segments include Mobile Services India, Mobile Services Africa, Mobile Services South Asia, Airtel Business, Passive Infrastructure Services, Homes Services, Digital TV Services, and others. It generates maximum revenue from the Mobile Services India segment. Mobile Services India services cover voice and data telecom services provided through wireless technology (2G /3G/4G) in India. It includes the captive national long-distance networks, which provide connectivity to the mobile services business in India. It also includes intra-city fibre networks.

Equinix is one of the leading providers of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centers, offering colocation and interconnection services to hyperscalers and businesses. Equinix operates 270 properties in 77 metropolitan areas across 36 countries, serving over 10,000 customers. About 70% of Equinix’s revenue comes from renting physical space, which allows hyperscalers and other clients to store servers, data storage, and networking equipment. The other 30% of revenue is generated primarily through interconnection services (20%) and other managed services (10%).

American Tower owns and operates about 150,000 wireless towers throughout the US, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. It also owns and/or operates 30 data centers in 11 US markets after acquiring CoreSite. On its towers, the company has a very concentrated customer base, with most revenue in each market generated by the top few mobile carriers. The company operates more than 40,000 towers in the US, which accounted for about half of total revenue in 2024. Outside the US, American Tower operates about 47,000 towers in Latin America (dominated by Brazil), 32,000 towers in Europe, and 27,000 towers in Africa. American Tower operates as a REIT.

Digital Realty is one of the leading providers of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centers, offering colocation and interconnection services to hyperscalers and large businesses. Digital Realty operates 300 properties in 57 metropolitan areas across 31 countries, serving 5,000 customers. Renting physical space accounts for about 90% of Digital Realty’s revenue. The firm enables hyperscalers and other clients to store servers, data, and networking equipment. The other 10% of revenue is generated primarily through interconnection services (8%) and other fee income (2%).

Nokia provides telecom equipment and services that are used to build wireless and fixed-line networks. It operates in four segments. The mobile networks segment sells equipment and services to telecom carriers to power public wireless networks. Network infrastructure focuses on fixed-line networks, including switching and routing equipment, optical components, and devices used in fiber-to-the-premises networks. The cloud and network services segment develops software used to operate the core of carrier wireless networks and build private networks for enterprises. Nokia also has a sizable research and patent business, where it licenses technology used by handset providers, consumer electronics firms, and other firms making electronic and Internet of Things products.

Ciena is a telecommunications equipment provider focused on optical transport technologies, with clients in a number of industries such as communication services providers, web-scale providers, cable operators, government, and large enterprises worldwide. The company provides equipment, software, and services that support transport, switching, aggregation, service delivery, and data traffic management.

Telstra is Australia’s largest telecommunications company, with dominant market shares in voice, mobile, enterprise telecom, and fixed-line broadband resale via the national broadband network. Telstra provides most of its products and services via its infrastructure assets, such as a fixed-line network (data centers, exchanges, poles, ducts, pits and pipes, fiber network), a mobile network, and mobile towers. Its customers span retail, corporate, government, wholesale, and overseas segments. Telstra also provides the government-owned, last-mile fixed-line National Broadband Network with long-term access to its infrastructure, in return for recurring payments. Finally, Telstra operates a leading telecom operation in Papua New Guinea and the surrounding South-Pacific countries.

Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Ltd Co is engaged in the Chinese communication equipment industry. It manufactures and sells optical fiber preforms, optical fibers with various standard specifications that are widely used in the telecommunications industry. It operates its business through three operating segments, optical fibers and optical fiber preforms; and Optical components and modules, optical fiber cables. The manufacture and sale of optical fiber cables provide the company with majority of its revenue. Its other products comprise of trunk cables, patch cords, plug-and-play modules, optical distribution frames, pigtails, adapter panels, splitters, and connecting cabinets.

Ericsson provides telecom equipment and services that are primarily used to build and operate mobile networks. The firm divides its business into three segments: networks, cloud and software services, and enterprise. Wireless carriers have traditionally been the firm’s primary customers, but it is pushing to cater more to enterprises as well, as both try to take advantage of 5G capabilities and utilize “as-a-service” communications platforms. The company also licenses its patents to handset manufacturers.

Crown Castle owns or manages roughly 40,000 wireless towers in the United States. It leases space on its towers to wireless service providers, which install equipment to support their wireless networks. The company has a very concentrated customer base, with about 75% of its revenue from the Big Three US mobile carriers: Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. Crown Castle has plans to divest its fiber business, which is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2026. After that, it will be a stand-alone tower operator. Crown Castle operates as a real estate investment trust.

BT Group is the incumbent telecommunications operator in the UK. BT is the owner of Openreach, the largest fixed-line network in the country. Openreach operates as a separate entity due to regulatory requirements but is still 100% owned by BT. Openreach has accelerated its fiber investments and expects to have 90% of the UK covered with FTTH by 2026. In the consumer division, BT has approximately 30% market share in broadband and mobile services. The enterprise segment serves large corporations while the global services division provides communications consultancy services.

Hengtong Optic-Electric Co Ltd provides fiber optic communication products in China and internationally. It offers optical rods, optical fiber, optical cable, optical devices, an optical network, ocean optical network products, data communication products, power transmission products, ocean engineering, quantum security communications, rail transit, and smart city products.

China Tower Corp Ltd is a telecommunications tower infrastructure service provider. The Company is principally engaged in the construction, maintenance, and operation of base station ancillary facilities such as telecommunications towers, public network coverage in high-speed railways and subways, and large-scale indoor Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS). The business of the company includes Tower business; DAS business; Smart Tower business and Energy business. The Group’s revenue is generated from the Three TSPs.

SBA Communications owns a portfolio of about 45,000 wireless towers throughout North America, South America, and Africa. It leases space on its towers to wireless service providers, who install equipment to support their wireless networks. The company has a very concentrated customer base, with most revenue in each market being generated by the top few mobile carriers. It owns more than 17,000 towers in the US, which account for about 75% of leasing revenue. Internationally, SBA’s largest presence is in Brazil, where it owns roughly 10,000 towers. SBA operates as a real estate investment trust.

FirstEnergy Transmission is an Akron-based holding company for interstate transmission assets under FirstEnergy Corp. It owns American Transmission Systems, Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission, and Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line, operating 24,000 miles of high-voltage lines. The unit delivers 30,000 MW capacity across PJM and MISO markets in 10 states.

ICEYE is a Polish/Finland-headquartered satellite operator managing the largest synthetic aperture radar constellation for Earth observation. Its smallsats deliver all-weather radar imagery for flood detection, insurance damage assessment, oil spill monitoring, and ship tracking. Clients in government, reinsurance, and defense sectors task satellites for data capture within hours. Founded in 2014, ICEYE builds and launches radar spacecraft from sites in Finland and the United States.

DriveNets is a Ra'anana-headquartered provider of cloud-native IP routing software for telecommunications networks. The company delivers Network Cloud, a disaggregated platform that runs on standard white box servers with merchant silicon, supporting core routing, peering, and edge aggregation. Founded in 2015, DriveNets enables service providers to scale networks beyond 100Tbps per site while reducing costs through open hardware. Its solutions deploy in production for operators like BT in the UK, Telefónica in Spain, and Vivo in Brazil, handling millions of subscribers across five continents. DriveNets integrates with standards such as BGP, EVPN, and Segment Routing, powering 5G, cloud interconnect, and internet exchange points.

Bersama Digital Infrastructure is a Singapore-headquartered platform owning and operating telecom towers, fiber optic networks, and data centers across Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand. Controlled by Provident Capital and Saratoga Investama Sedaya, the company manages over 5,000 towers leased to mobile operators like Telkomsel and Globe. Bersama Digital Infrastructure expands fiber connectivity in urban areas supporting 4G and 5G rollouts.