The investment will support the CoolIT’s ability to scale and serve its global customers across the data centre market, including the enterprise, high-performance computing, and cloud service provider segments as well as in desktop computing.
“Our business has evolved tremendously over the past few years and today we are proud to be one of the most trusted providers of liquid cooling solutions to the global data centre market,” said Steve Walton, chief executive officer of CoolIT.
“KKR shares our perspective on the significant opportunity ahead for liquid cooling. Having access to KKR’s expertise, capital and resources will put us in an even better position to keep scaling, innovating and delivering for our customers.”
CoolIT designs, engineers and manufactures advanced liquid cooling solutions for the data centre and desktop markets.
“As a firm, we have committed more than $17 billion to digital infrastructure since 2011 and deeply appreciate the mission critical role that it plays in enabling our economy," said Kyle Matter, managing director and head of KKR’s global impact team in North America.
"We also recognise that as a society, we are grappling with the enormous energy usage and related environmental impacts that are only expected to accelerate with the rise of AI and other high-performance applications. We believe that liquid cooling has a critical role to play in helping to reduce the emissions footprint of our digital economy and we are thrilled to back CoolIT, a leader in this space.”
As part of this transaction, CoolIT will expand its equity ownership program to make all employees owners of the company.
Additionally, KKR is investing in CoolIT through its Global Impact strategy, which is focused on investing behind opportunities where financial performance and societal impact are aligned.
“By combining our manufacturing and decarbonization expertise with CoolIT’s track record of product innovation, we expect to further scale its best-in-class direct liquid cooling solution to meet the anticipated demand for higher density, more energy efficient data centres," added Evan Kaufman, director at KKR.
"Importantly, we look forward to working with Steve and the entire CoolIT management team to invest additional capital and resources into expanding its cooling solutions across new applications, customers and end markets.”
The transaction is due to close in Q2 of 2023, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
