A New York venture capital firm plans to invest up to $100 million in Portland-based Tilson Technology Management, which would represent one of the largest such investments in a Maine company in recent years.

Tilson, a cellular network deployment and information technology services firm, would use the investment by SDC Capital Partners LLC to expand and to spin out its network deployment business into a separate company called SQF LLC, the company said Tuesday.

 

“We are thrilled to welcome SDC as an investor and partner,” Tilson CEO Joshua Broder said in a news release. “SDC brings a wealth of experience in building and growing platforms, and we share a long-term strategic vision as we scale to meet the exploding market demand for small cell infrastructure development. With SDC’s support, we are in an even stronger position to serve the wide-ranging needs of our clients from national 5G rollouts to cutting-edge IoT technology services.”

The term 5G refers to the next generation of consumer wireless communications infrastructure, while IoT is short for “the internet of things,” a term used to describe the infrastructure for web-connected household appliances and other “smart” devices.

SDC specializes in network infrastructure. Other companies in its investment portfolio include Ascenty, the largest data center provider in Brazil, and two additional data center providers in Virginia. SDC said it became interested in Tilson because of its positive industry reputation and rapid growth.

“The company’s incredible recent growth is a testament to its unrelenting focus on execution and the trust in Tilson placed by many of the largest global telecom providers,” SDC managing partner Todd Aaron said in the release. “We see great opportunity in the prospect of combining SQF’s unique offering with Tilson’s wide-ranging capabilities and are excited to support the platform’s further growth.”

With over 550 employees and 23 offices nationwide, Tilson has placed on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing privately owned companies for the past eight years in a row. Its network deployment business owns and develops telecommunications infrastructure in public rights of way throughout the U.S. and is a leading pole owner and service provider for 5G wireless infrastructure.

J. Craig Anderson can be contacted at 791-6390 or at:

canderson@pressherald.com

Twitter: jcraiganderson

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