Did you know that Raleigh-based Republic Wireless is already close to a $100 million-a-year company and growing fast?

Just five years old, the wireless communications provider that is helping make WiFi calling mainstream, became a separate company on Thursday. Spun out from parent Bandwidth, Republic has a $30 million cash infusion and is embarking on a rapid growth plan with more money for jobs, hiring and new products.

With numerous awards for customer service and recognition from consumer advocate Clark Howard, Republic also now offers a wide variety of phones. With models from Moto, LG and Samsung, the company has come a long way from bare-bones offerings in the early days of its rollout.

In the second part of WRAL TechWire’s exclusive Q&A, newly named CEO Chris Chuang talks about Republic’s rapid growth, profitability and how the company plans to defend its WiFi calling technology. (Part one was published earlier today.)

  • How many customers do you have? What has growth been like over the past five years and are you continuing to grow?

Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) since 2012 (the first year of substantial revenue in our history as we only publicly launched our beta in late 2011). We are now at (approximately) $100M of total annual revenue.

  • Is Republic at this point profitable or cash-flow positive?

We reached EBITDA positive in 2016.

  • Is it Republic’s intent to stay privately held? Might an IPO be in the future planning?

We will remain privately held for now, but, will of course always explore all corporate development options, including IPO, as we continue to scale the business.

  • Are you seeking any acquisitions?

We are not actively seeking any acquisitions at this time, but, do review new opportunities as they emerge.

  • How does Republic position itself as being different from competitors?

As Consumer Reports’ No.1 ranked pre-paid wireless service provider for the last three years in a row, we offer customers better coverage, in more places, for less money.

Our secret sauce enabling this value proposition for consumers is our patented WiFi calling technology (we call Adaptive Coverage), which allows customers to seamlessly use both WiFi and cellular networks.

  • Did Republic receive patents/intellectual property as part of the spinout? If so, does Republic plan to fight in court other companies that have developed WiFi calling technology?

Yes, Republic has 45-plus patents for our industry leading and proprietary technology platforms, particularly related to our Adaptive Coverage WiFi calling technology. We are constantly monitoring the technology landscape.

At the current time, we consider our technology best of breed and we plan to compete vigorously in the marketplace and leverage our IP to continue providing our customers remarkably simple and affordable ways to stay in touch with anyone, anywhere, anyway.