UK development finance institution and impact investor CDC Group has invested an additional $40-million of equity into African independent fibre, data centre and cloud technology provider Liquid Telecom.
This marks the CDC’s second investment into the company, after an initial equity investment of $180-million in 2018.
CDC’s additional investment is made as part of Liquid’s wider fundraise, with the company having raised $307-million through a rights issue to shareholders.
This investment will support Liquid’s plan to further expand its pan-African data centre operation business, Africa Data Centres, and consolidate its position as the leading data centre operator on the continent.
Africa Data Centres is well positioned to service increasing demands for data storage and cloud-based applications across the continent, and it is currently estimated that less than 20% of potential telecommunications enterprise demand is being served in Africa, with London having three times more cloud computing power available than the entire African continent.
Liquid’s development of data centres will boost economic activity by reducing information technology- (IT-) related costs for companies, while the local increased local capacity will also spur innovation by offering affordable data storage and software-as-a-service applications to small and micro enterprises.
Additionally, the company’s cloud-based services will also help accelerate the growth of Africa’s tech startup ecosystems whilst also supporting the needs of established enterprises across the continent.
This investment will contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8, namely ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’; and SDG 9, namely ‘Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure’.