Gateway Fiber Ceo On $578m Financing And Growth Plans: Interview

Gateway Fiber CEO on $578M financing and growth plans: Interview

Last week, Gateway Fiber announced that it had secured $578 million in new financing through two transactions: a $333 million asset-backed securitization (ABS) and a $245 million development financing facility. Telecompetitor spoke with Gateway Fiber CEO Chris Surdo about the company’s growth plans, how it identifies new markets, and where it stands with artificial intelligence.

Surdo said the financing will give Gateway Fiber a sustainable funding source as it continues to grow. The company launched its first fiber-to-the-home market in the St. Louis area in 2019 and now operates in seven states.

“The financing will allow us to continue to grow in all of those markets,” Surdo said, adding that the new capital will let Gateway Fiber extend its existing operations.

Asked whether the company plans to expand beyond its current states, Surdo said Gateway Fiber is concentrating on its current footprint. “We have a lot of growth runway left in those areas,” he said. “That’s really the focus for us.”

The company lists Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and Wisconsin among the states where it is building or operating fiber networks. In addition to funding construction, the company said it would use proceeds from the two transactions to refinance existing debt, cover transaction reserves and expenses, and add liquidity.

In 2024, Telecompetitor spoke with Surdo’s predecessor, Heath Sellenriek, as Gateway Fiber prepared to enter Northampton, Massachusetts — its first market outside the Midwest. In that interview, Sellenriek described a new markets team that weighed roughly 100 criteria — including build costs, competition, and household size — when evaluating potential markets.

Surdo, who had previously served as Gateway Fiber’s CFO, was named CEO of the combined company when Gateway Fiber announced its merger with E-Rate provider WANRack in early 2025. Both companies were majority owned by a CBRE Investment Management fund, and the combined business now operates under the Gateway Fiber brand.

Surdo said the new markets team is still in place and has been central to the company’s expansion. He said Gateway Fiber has developed its own technology to assess growth potential in new markets. The tool aggregates data from many sources to produce a near real-time picture of what construction, competition, and the customer base might look like in a particular market.

“We’re actually able to kind of boil the ocean and look at markets all over the country,” Surdo said.

That broader view has shown the company that markets far from its Midwest roots may have much in common with its markets around St. Louis — for example, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Surdo said Gateway Fiber had been working on that market for a couple of years before starting construction in Falmouth in the second half of 2026. The company expects to have customers online there by the end of the year.

Looking ahead, Surdo said he expects Gateway Fiber’s strategy to remain largely consistent, with a focus on customer experience and network quality in its existing markets.

He said Gateway Fiber’s business segment is a smaller part of its operations today but is growing, and he sees room for growth in multi-dwelling units (MDUs) as well. “It’s really more of the same,” Surdo said.

Asked about AI, Surdo said Gateway Fiber is in the early stages of adopting the technology. The company’s approach is to use AI to make employees’ jobs easier, which should improve the customer experience, he said. Gateway Fiber is also focusing on cases where customers themselves find an AI-based solution useful.

Surdo said the company is not yet using AI at a broad scale, but it has several initiatives underway to support Gateway Fiber’s operations and network.

Telecompetitor