Singapore-based Digital Edge has partnered with National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and AGP DC InvestCo Pte Ltd (AGP) to develop a pan-India portfolio of hyperscale data centres. The partnership’s first project is a greenfield 300 MW hyperscale facility in Navi Mumbai with a potential investment of $2 billion (Rs 1,633 crore).
The project is poised to be the country’s biggest data center hub offering access to infrastructure, including power and fiber connectivity, the company said in its press release.
The facilities developed in the partnership will operate under the brand name Digital Edge DC and intend to support the growth of India’s cloud industry.
Construction of the 47-acre site will commence in early 2023 and the facility will be built in multiple phases. Upon completion, the data centre will be operated by and marketed by Digital Edge DC.
This partnership with NIIF and AGP marks Digital Edge’s entry into the Indian market, growing its platform to six countries across Asia. The partnership aims to source power for its portfolio of data centres predominantly from renewable energy sources.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), India’s public cloud services market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.1% for the period 2020-2025.
The cloud services market has seen some noteworthy deals in the past couple of years with Everstone and global data centre company Yondr Group setting up a $1 billion JV EverYondr to operate data centres in India in July 2021. In February 2022, UAE-based fund Mubadala led a $500 million investment in data centre platform Princeton Digital Group (PDG).
“This project is another milestone in our ongoing journey and takes the count to 16 data centres across six Asian markets,” said Samuel Lee, chief executive officer at Digital Edge while commenting about the partnership.
Digital Edge is a Singapore-based data centre platform company. It has deployed close to $1 billion in capital throughout Asia. The company provides data centre and fiber services across Asia, with a presence in China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.
NIIF manages over $4.3 billion of equity capital across its three funds – Master Fund, Fund of Funds, and Strategic Opportunities Fund. It has been actively investing in various infrastructure projects throughout 2022.
In December 2022, it picked up an equity stake in GMR Goa International Airport for Rs 631 crore (around $76.5 million). In November 2022, NIIF signed an MoU with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to promote Japanese investments in India and the partnership is aiming for an investment of around $500-700 million in a new bilateral India-Japan Fund (IJF).