The funds will be used to deploy "a network of data centres across the African continent", which Raxio said will utilise design and technology to "minimise the impact on the environment".
Meridiam’s investment is made alongside Raxio’s founding equity partner, Roha Group which established Raxio in 2018, and has been funding the company since inception.
Robert Mullins, CEO of Raxio Group, said: “We are delighted to welcome Meridiam as our new investment partner in our shared vision. This investment comes at an ideal time, as we have continued our expansion activities by investing in our third facility – in the Democratic Republic of Congo – following our first flagship facility in Uganda and launching the construction of our Ethiopian data centre.
"It is testament to our strategy of developing an Africa-wide network of local, interconnected facilities, that provide our customers with affordable, state-of-the-art solutions for their IT infrastructure, in a neutral, always on environment. Customers are core to the design process to ensure our facilities are efficient, sustainable and cost-effective. With its extensive knowledge in the development of sustainable infrastructure in the region, we are convinced Meridiam is the partner of choice for us to continue our deployment plans and reach our targets," Mullins added.
Meridiam has already invested €4 billion across Africa for projects including solar power plants in Senegal, a geothermal power plant in Ethiopia, the Kinguele Aval Hydropower plant, which will deliver about 13% of the electricity needs of Libreville, the capital city of Gabon and NeOT, a company rolling out 300,000 solar home systems and mini-grids across West Africa.
It has also backed the Biokala biomass power plant in Côte d'Ivoire, the largest biomass power plant in Sub-Saharan Africa which will be fuelled from agricultural waste and will meet the electricity needs of the equivalent of 1.7 million people per year,
The French asset manager – founded in 2005 by Thierry Déau – operates offices in Addis Ababa, Amman, Dakar, Istanbul, New York, Luxembourg, Paris, Toronto and Vienna, Meridiam currently manages US$8 billion and more than 90 assets to date.
Mathieu Peller, COO Africa for Meridiam said: “Investing in Raxio’s data centre platform was a natural move for us, as it fits our purpose to delivering sustainable infrastructure that improves the quality of people’s lives. We are excited to contribute to developing Africa’s digital infrastructure, by helping to roll-out energy efficient data centres that will drive the digital transformation of the continent and be a catalyst for highly skilled jobs creation, whilst respecting the local environment.”
