PAIX Data Centres, a Pan-African provider of cloud-and carrier-neutral colocation data centre services, has announced the first stage of a major investment that will be used to fund the company’s data centre capacity expansion and growth plans into new African data centre markets.
The completion of equity investment of US$20 million into PAIX Data Centres forms the first tranche of PAIX’s Series B financing by infrastructure investment platform Africa50.
Since its founding in 2016, PAIX says it has gained a strong reputation for its data centre facilities with high levels of operational efficiency and service quality in coveted central locations with high fibre connectivity. PAIX currently operates two data centre facilities: one in Accra, Ghana, and another in Nairobi, Kenya.
The new equity financing secured from Africa50, as PAIX’s first institutional investor, is a significant milestone for the company to pursue its growth opportunities across Africa and in line with Africa50’s commitment to invest in businesses and ecosystems that support Africa’s digital transformation.
Raza Hasnani, managing director and head of infrastructure investments at Africa50, pointed out that, despite the well-known benefits from increased data centre colocation capacity, the African data centre colocation market is still significantly underpenetrated for a continent with a population of over 1.3 billion and total data centre capacity of only about 300 MW. This is approximately equivalent in capacity to a single European internet hub such as Paris.
He added, “This digital infrastructure improvement will result in greater accessibility, connectivity, and lower internet and data costs, which will contribute to the use and affordability of internet and wireless data for African consumers across the continent.”
