Singapore Hyperscale Data Centre Startup AirTrunk secures US$621 million for Australia, APAC expansion
Mon Aug 20, 2018 - 6:41am UTC
20/8/2018 – AirTrunk, a Singapore-founded provider of hyperscale data centres, has secured an A$850 million (about US$621 million) financing that will fund the expansion of its two Australian data centres and a move into Asia Pacific to take advantage of the growing cloud computing market.
The funding comprises of new senior secured debt facilities, as well as capital reserves from AirTrunk's Founder and CEO Robin Khuda, and existing investors Goldman Sachs and TSSP. Deutsche Bank was the lead arranger, underwriter, and bookrunner for the financing process which is said to be the largest by a data centre company in Australia.
This latest financing also comes on top of an A$150 million (about US$110 million) six-year term loan from ING Groep NV and Natixis SA secured in February 2017, in addition to a US$400 million funding round co-led by Goldman Sachs and TPG Capital in the same year.
Established in 2014 as a hyperscale data centre provider, AirTrunk develops and operate large-scale wholesale data centres that provides a platform for cloud, content, and large enterprise customers across the Asia Pacific region.
It takes advantage of a surge in cloud computing as companies that once ran in-house servers are gradually shifting storage and processing off-site. To meet their demand, AirTrunk provides its clients with the physical space, internet connections, power and cooling for their own servers.
The startup maximizes energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness by implementing a single computer architecture that can be rapidly scaled by bringing more machines online as and when they are needed.
According to research firm IDC, it is estimated that public cloud demand in the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan will hit US$47 billion by 2020.
So far, AirTrunk had opened two Australian data centres last year – AirTrunk Sydney in September and AirTrunk Melbourne in November – which will be upgraded and expanded using majority of the capital raised from this investment.
AirTrunk said these two facilities are set to be the largest data centres in the Asia Pacific region when completed at 90 megawatts and 84 megawatts respectively.
"Together with the new capital recently contributed by our shareholders, the new funds put us in a strong position to meet the growing demand from large cloud, content, and enterprise customers in the Asia-Pacific region," said former CFO at NextDC, Khuda.
AirTrunk which measures inventory in terms of power capacity, will have 174 megawatts within 12 months, of which 100 megawatts will be built up and ready for customers. The rest is made up of land that can be upgraded as needed.
Meanwhile, the remainder of the money raised will go toward expanding into Asia with Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong key priorities. Facilities in the region are expected to be online by end-2020.
"AirTrunk continues to pursue its ambition to be the leader in hyperscale data centers for the region. The expansion in Australia will establish as the largest data centre operator in Australia by deployed capacity, and we continue to pursue aggressive growth opportunities across the Asia Pacific region," Khuda added.
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