News
WIOCC has successfully raised $200 million in debt and equity capital to support its plans to expand its African and international network infrastructure.
WIOCC has announced that it has raised $200 million of capital which will be used to support the company’s expansion strategy and accelerate its investments in digital infrastructure. The company’s international strategy sees it making strategic investments in the Equiano and 2Africa submarine cable systems are being made. WIOCC’s terrestrial strategy, centred on the deployment of metro and national networks, will also be extended to new countries and metropolitan areas.
The funds will also be used to create Open Access Data Centres (OADC), a new WIOCC Group company formed to launch a network of pan-African carrier-neutral data centres. The first phase of locations, due to be launched in early 2022, will house key submarine cable landings in Lagos, Nigeria and Durban, South Africa. An additional data centre in Mogadishu, Somalia is expected to be ready later in the year. Future deployment phases will see more than 20 new data centres strategically located across Africa.
WIOCC raised the equity capital from CAPE IV, a fund that is managed by the private equity fund manager Africa Capital Alliance (ACA). WIOCC’s debt facility was provided by the International Finance Corporation, Proparco and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (managed by Ninety One).
Chris Wood, WIOCC’s CEO, said: “We are excited to conclude this stage of our capital raise, which will enable a very significant expansion of our hyperscale infrastructure through investment in new high-capacity subsea systems and terrestrial network. The creation of a new Group company – Open Access Data Centres – offering a transformational data centre proposition to the market will underpin and accelerate the evolution of cloud ecosystems in Africa, delivering the low-latency, high-performance capabilities increasingly demanded in Africa’s markets. The inward investment and partnership with ACA will help us in enabling businesses and consumers in Africa to benefit from the digital economy and migration to cloud-based services.”
To learn about the latest developments and investments in the EMEA submarine cable market, join us in London on 17th and 18th May for Submarine Networks EMEA 2021. Head to the event website for more details on how to get involved.
