• Mavenir is well regarded in the telecom software world but its Open RAN growth plans haven’t worked out
• The vendor has been grappling with its debts and interest payments
• Now it has struck a recapitalisation deal with Siris Capital that has cut its debt pile by more than $1.3bn and given it fresh funds

Mavenir and its controlling shareholder Siris Capital have struck a recapitalisation deal with the vendor’s lenders that will “meaningfully strengthen” the telecom software specialist’s balance sheet by wiping $1.3bn from its debt pile and providing it with $300m of new financing. 

The deal will come as a great relief to the vendor’s management, staff and customers, as Mavenir has been struggling to deal with its debt pile over the past year following significant investments in the company’s Open RAN portfolio that didn’t pay off due to the tech-purchasing trend of that particular mobile network infrastructure niche that is favouring larger vendors, such as Ericsson and Samsung Networks. 

While Open RAN is far from the only string in Mavenir’s bow, the shortfall in business from that sector left the vendor struggling financially in 2024. In May last year, Mavenir raised $75m to support its ongoing operations, but in November credit ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its credit rating and tagged it with a negative outlook, a move that reflected a greater risk of defaulting on interest payments due to weak liquidity, limited cash reserves and a lack of commitment to further funding from existing investors, reported Bloomberg. “After investing over $1.5bn, the company’s equity sponsors have turned definitely uncommitted to providing any additional capital support, leaving no certain back-stop,” noted the Moody’s report, which also highlighted that Mavenir missed an interest payment in September 2024. 

That news led to speculation that Saudi firm Aramco Digital, which at the time was headed up by Open RAN evangelist Tareq Amin, was on the verge of a $1bn investment in Mavenir to take control of the company and put it back on its feet: That deal didn’t materialise and Amin, like many others in the tech sector, has now turned his attentions to the AI sector. 
 

Now, though, long-time investor Siris Capital has come to Mavenir’s rescue by underpinning its recapitalisation deal in a move that sees Siris maintain its controlling stake in the vendor. 

According to Mavenir, the move will give it a secure financial footing and “support its strategic focus on its profitable mobile core segment,” where it boasts customers such as Deutsche Telekom. “With increased liquidity, a more stable capital structure and substantially reduced net leverage, Mavenir will be well positioned for sustained growth and long-term success,” it noted. 

Mavenir declined to answer questions about the size of its debt pile post-recapitalisation, its annual revenue run rate and its operating profit/loss position. It noted that its current headcount is about 4,000 staff. “We have been and will continue to align our talent strategy with our refined priorities,” the company noted in a response to questions from TelecomTV. 

It’s the mobile core part of its business, which comprises a suite of software applications focused on voice, messaging, video and data services, that has kept it afloat: In February this year, Pardeep Kohli, president and CEO of Mavenir stated in  this LinkedIn post that Mavenir had just had its “second-best year in the company’s 20-year history in terms of bookings”. For the 12 months to the end of January 2025, Mavenir’s bookings totalled $650m, up by 45% compared with the previous fiscal year, according to the CEO, who boasted of notable expansion in messaging, IMS, packet core, billing, charging, fraud, security and even Open RAN.  

But the focus now is on further capitalising on the vendor’s core platform success and playing more of a waiting game in Open RAN: The vendor isn’t abandoning the Open RAN, but is now refocussing its efforts on 4G and 5G software for Open RAN deployments, while scaling back its efforts on radio unit hardware. Mavenir says it will “maintain its Open RAN hardware IP and continue to support its existing customers to ensure maximum flexibility in the evolving Open RAN landscape.”

In addition, and like every other tech developer, it is to “accelerate investment in AI capabilities across its mobile core and Open RAN businesses to drive autonomous networks, deliver AI-native solutions and unlock new revenue streams through AI-based solutions. This strategic focus aligns with Mavenir’s vision of building the future of networks with cloud-native solutions that run on any cloud,” the vendor noted. 

“We have been spearheading cloud transformation in core and Open RAN. With a strengthened balance sheet and lower leverage, we are doubling down on our software expertise and domain knowledge to deliver a comprehensive, end-to-end, AI-native telco stack, setting Mavenir up for profitable growth in both core and Open RAN,” stated Kohli in the company’s recapitalisation announcement. “We are excited to leverage our mobile core leadership to accelerate software-driven network transformations for our customers around the world,” added the CEO. 

Mavenir executive chair and Siris executive partner Hubert de Pesquidoux, added:  “This is a pivotal moment for our company. By strengthening our capital structure, we will be better positioned to execute our strategy, invest in innovation and deliver on our commitments. We are deeply grateful to all our stakeholders – our customers, partners, investors and especially our employees – for their unwavering support and confidence throughout this process.”

Despite its challenges, Mavenir, which claims to have more than 300 network operator customers across its product portfolio, is well regarded in the industry. In TelecomTV’s recent cloud-native market perception survey, Mavenir came fourth, while in our Open RAN market perception survey, conducted at the start of this year, the vendor came out top – see Mavenir retains its Open RAN vendor crown.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV