CtrlS DataCenters Nets ₹250 Cr From Zerodha’s Nikhil

What happened

CtrlS DataCentres has raised ₹250 Cr in equity funding, with Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath investing ₹200 Cr and Kofluence cofounder Sreeram Reddy Vanga contributing ₹50 Cr. The funding comes as CtrlS accelerates capacity expansion to capitalise on India’s AI-driven data centre boom and rising demand from enterprises and hyperscalers. 8 Bn valuation.

India’s data centre capacity is expected to cross the 8 GW mark by 2030. Owing to the growing demand for compute capacity, many Indian and foreign players are ramping up their investments in India’s data centre infrastructure. In June this year, the World Bank’s private lending arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced a commitment of $371 Mn (₹3,500 Cr) in Sify Technologies’ subsidiary, Sify Infinit Spaces Ltd.

Why it matters

1 Mn) in equity funding from Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath, who pitched in ₹200 Cr, while the rest was infused by Sreeram Reddy Vanga, cofounder of adtech firm Kofluence. Amid the ongoing AI boom in India, the data centres operator bids to utilise the fresh capital to scale its infrastructure and capacity build-out.

It expects to expand its capacity to serve the surging enterprise and hyperscaler demand across India as AI, cloud, and digital workloads accelerate Founded in 2007 by Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Hyderabad-based CtrlS operates 19 data centre campuses across nine key hubs in India including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Noida, and Bengaluru.

CtrlS is also testing the international market by setting up a 150 MW hyperscale data center campus in Chonburi’s Eastern Economic Corridor of Digital (EECd), Thailand. The company is also planning to expand into international markets across the Middle East and Southeast Asia. 4 GW of projects at various stages of execution. This includes a ‘green’ data centre in Hyderabad, built in partnership with Flipkart in 2019.

Buoyed by the ongoing AI data centres boom, the 16-year old company has been seeing uptick in recent times. 8 Bn, from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) to fuel its next phase of growth. The broader aim of CtrlS is to install a 4 GW of capacity by 2031 to capture India’s AI-driven data center boom, fueled by massive AI demand, cloud expansion, and data localisation requirements.

What to watch

(SISL), to develop two data centres in Navi Mumbai and Chennai. Important to note that Indian conglomerate Adani Group partnered with US-based manufacturing company Jabil Inc to build vertically-integrated AI and data centre infrastructure in India.

At the same time, global tech giant Meta tied up with Reliance Industries (RIL) to set up its first AI-enabled data centre in the country in Gujarat’s Jamnagar, with an initial capacity of 168 ​MW. 7 Bn towards cloud infrastructure in India by 2030, while OpenAI is planning to set up a 1 GW data centre in India in partnership with TCS.