Raxio Data Centres, a provider of carrier-neutral, Tier-III data centres, has secured an additional US$46mn in equity funding to secure its growth prospects
The funding comes in quick succession of a facility worth up to US$170mn of debt from Proparco and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF). The latest funding, which has been taken by Raxio as a display of confidence in its vision and execution capabilities, comes from existing shareholders Roha and Meridiam. With this onboard, Raxio becomes one of the best-funded independent data centre platforms on the continent and it will be used to support the company’s expansion initiatives as well as facilitating the development of high-quality hyperscale-ready data centre facilities.
“The digital revolution in Africa is gaining momentum, and Raxio is playing a pivotal role in fuelling this transformation. Meridiam is thrilled to be a part of Raxio’s journey and contribute to its mission of enhancing connectivity and data centre services across the continent. With this additional equity injection, we look forward to witnessing Raxio’s continued growth and impact,” commented Mathieu Peller, partner and deputy CEO at Meridiam.
Brooks Washington, partner at Roha, added, “This funding will help Raxio expand and consolidate its position as the provider with the widest geographic footprint of data centres in Africa at a time where demand for high-quality digital infrastructure in Africa continues to grow from both international and local businesses.”
The investment will enable Raxio to provide enhanced services and cater to the growing demand for reliable data storage, processing and connectivity solutions in Africa.
In the same breath, the company has also announced that they have taken a serious step in the hunt to find a successor for outgoing CEO, Robert Mullins. The board of directors have now hired Egon Zehnder to find a suitable candidate to build on the progress the company has made under its former leader.
Mullins remarked, “Building the company from scratch to where we are today has been extremely gratifying, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. With four more data centres coming on-line over the coming six-nine months, the job will increasingly shift to managing ongoing operations, alongside business development. Having secured all the funding needed to execute our current business plan it seemed like the natural moment for me to hand over the baton to someone else”.
The board gave favourable statements for the departing Mullins, thanking him for his service to the company.
“Robert always made it clear that he was primarily interested in managing the initial development stages of the company, and his decision to move on does not come as a surprise. We truly appreciate that Robert has given us an early heads-up, so that we have ample time for both the recruitment of and the transition to a new CEO for Raxio’s next phase of development,” surmised independent Board member Bernard Geoghegan.
