Actis launches a $250 million pan-African data centre platform

U.K.-based Actis, a leading investor of private capital into global emerging markets, has launched a $250 million pan-African data centre platform, with the acquisition of Rack Centre, Nigeria’s leading, independent, co-location business.

Established in 2013 by Jagal, a Nigerian conglomerate that operates leading energy businesses and manages a diverse portfolio of investments, Rack Centre, which owns and operates a certified Tier III data centre in Lagos, boasts the largest installed capacity in West Africa hosting over 80 international, regional and local clients, while Nigeria is Africa’s largest data centre market outside of South Africa.

“With over 750kW of installed capacity, it is now doubling capacity to 1.5MW of IT power at the currently location on a trajectory to 10MW,” says Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director of Rack Centre.

The investment into Rack Centre will fund a rapid expansion of the data centre, doubling the existing modular capacity and developing a traditional-build scale data centre on the same premises, and further create the largest data centre outside of South Africa with hosting capacity in excess of 10MW over the near term.

According to a statement, Tim Parsonson, co-founder of Teraco, South Africa’s largest data centre company, is investing and joining the Board as Chairman.

With a growing portfolio of investments across Asia, Africa and Latin America, Actis has raised over $15 billion since inception, and has committed $4,5 billion to Africa alone over the last 15 years.