Teraco Data raises $90m for African data centre rollout
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Teraco Data raises $90m for African data centre rollout

Teraco Data, the largest provider of data centre services in Africa, has raised R1.2bn ($90m) from Barclays Africa Group to build out its infrastructure.

The privately-held business will use some of the money to build a new data centre in eastern Johannesburg by the end of this year, according to a statement issued by the company. Teraco, is not just Africa's largest carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centre but also home to NAPAfrica, Africa's largest Internet exchange point (IXP).

Barclays Africa Group said that the company “understands our unique business model and the associated infrastructure funding requirements and timelines,’’ chief financial officer Jan Hnizdo said.

Hnizdo, says this is another significant milestone for Teraco and that the funding is earmarked for further investments into data centre infrastructure: "We will use the funding to further invest in the Teraco Campus in Isando. The site presently has 20MWs of capacity, which needs to all be brought online. We have also purchased land adjacent to the existing site, allowing for further expansion. In addition, a component of the funding has also been earmarked for the construction of Teraco's new data centre in Bredell."

Hnizdo says the Bredell site has 24MW of power and more than 6,000 square metres of technical deployment space, and will eclipse the existing Teraco Campus from a power availability perspective: "Bredell will be the largest commercial data centre in Africa and Teraco the largest commercial data centre operator in Africa." Teraco is investing to meet higher demand for data services in Africa as internet access improves and businesses adopt cloud-based technology.

Local reports confirm that wireless operators, including South African market leaders MTN Group and Vodacom Group are experiencing higher growth rates in data sales than traditional voice revenue.




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