Rotterdam-based Raxio Data Centres, a pan-African data centre developer and operator, announced on Monday, April 17, that it has secured a sustainability-linked financing facility of $170M (nearly €155.14M) to accelerate digital transformation in Africa.
Raxio is a portfolio company of Roha Group Inc, a US-based investment firm that invests in and builds greenfield, profitable businesses across Africa, and Meridiam, a developer, asset and fund manager specialising in sustainable infrastructure and energy transition projects.
About Raxio Group
Raxio Group claims to be one of Africa’s leading carrier-neutral Tier III data centre operator, delivering “best-in-class” co-location services.
Brooks Washington, Partner at Roha, says, “We launched Raxio in 2018 because we saw the significant potential for data centres across Africa. We’re looking forward to Raxio continuing its strong momentum and we are excited to build an African data centre champion.”
It offers carrier-grade, industry-standard infrastructure and services that would serve as the cornerstone of Africa’s digital economy.
“We are constantly expanding our footprint and are on track to build several new facilities over the next two years, establishing a network of interconnected data centres servicing the active and latent demand across the African continent,” says the company.
Capital utilisation
Raxio claims that the funds will help the company move forward with its plan to put up Tier III certified data centre infrastructure throughout the continent.
The company already has the broadest geographic reach of any data centre operator in Africa via its existing portfolio of locations that are either completed or in the planning stages.
Currently, Raxio has a presence in seven African nations, viz. Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mozambique.
Raxio, already backed by Roha and Meridiam, will use the additional cash to speed up its growth in African markets and will assist in the building and expansion of both new and existing facilities in the area.
Robert Mullins, CEO of Raxio Data Centres, says, “This substantial additional funding package is a resounding endorsement of what we have achieved so far and the soundness of our expansion strategy, and clearly positions Raxio as a leader in delivering world-class data centre infrastructure to markets across Africa.”
“Raxio is committed to building a digital Africa, and this financing gives us the runway we need to continue executing our strategy.”
Investors in this round
The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a division of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), and Paris-based Proparco each invested $110M in the funding package.
Proparco, a development financing organisation, and EAIF have a shared goal of helping Africa build its digital infrastructure to support the continent’s ongoing digital revolution. Energy efficiency, appropriate water usage, and female empowerment are all promoted by this finance package.
Ariane Ducreux, Head of Energy Digital and Infrastructure at Proparco, says, “Data centres, which concentrate data, services and a powerful aspect of service access, are the new hotspots of the digital economy.”
“We believe digital infrastructure can contribute to the reinforcement of social ties and reducing socio-economic inequalities. This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa where the lack of neutral and shared data centres undermines the potential of the local digital services markets.”
“Therefore, we are proud to support Raxio’s first development phase of seven carrier-neutral data centres across Africa, together with long-standing partners like EAIF, Meridiam and Roha. With this sustainability-linked loan to Raxio, we also aim at fostering data centres with exemplary environmental sobriety and security levels,” adds Ducreux.
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