TelcoDR launches $1 billion telco cloud fund

Danielle Royston (pictured), the founder of eponymous TelcoDR, which is dedicated to encouraging telcos move into the public cloud, has dug up a ton of cash to help the cause.

The $1 billion Telco Transformation Fund seems to be a kind of incubator/VC operation that will chuck money at companies involved in the development and cloudification of software products for the telco market. It will be overseen by a new TelcoDR subsidiary called Skyvera, which will also incubate companies acquired by the fund with support, advice, etc.

Skyvera is headed up by Matt Taylor, who has had the job since July according to his LinkedIn profile. Among his previous jobs is a nine-year spell at telco software vendor Matrixx. It looks like he’s already done some shopping in the form of some unidentified assets from Zephyrtel, which have been thrown into the mix. Customers of acquired companies automatically join the Skyvera Cloud Club, which entitles them to some extra cloudy bells and whistles.

“I’m excited to bring a number of CSP customers into the Skyvera family,” said Taylor. “The inevitable shift of workloads to the public cloud is a big change for many in the telco sector, which has traditionally been slow moving and burdened by on-premise infrastructure and solutions. There’s now a growing appreciation of the power of the public cloud, but many CSPs lack the skills and support needed to achieve their transformation goals. Skyvera will provide this expertise, so telcos can maximize their returns from the public cloud.”

“With my Telco Transformation Fund, I’m building a library of software products purpose-built for the public cloud,” added Royston. “I’m thrilled to welcome the Zephyrtel customers to Skyvera, and I’m eager to continue to help accelerate CSPs’ move to the public cloud.”

Royston was a recent guest on the Telecoms.com podcast and made no secret of her self-appointed role as cheerleader for the public cloud in telecoms. A key debate in that context is the trade-off between the benefits and efficiencies of moving to the public cloud, and the surrender of control to hyperscalers such as AWS that run it. It’s worth checking out our conversation if you want to know more about the pros and cons of the matter.