Kotak Bank arm raises USD 590 mn fund for data centre investments in India

Mumbai, Feb 14 (PTI) A Kotak Mahindra Bank arm on Tuesday announced that it has raised USD 590 million (about Rs 4,885 crore) for investments in the data centres in the country.

Kotak Investment Advisors (KIA) said it plans to raise USD 800 million under the Kotak Data Centre Fund and this is the first close for the same, as per a statement.

The statement said the fund is the first such dedicated platform to invest in data centres in the country, and added that it will be domiciled in GIFT City in Gujarat where entities receive a slew of benefits.

KIA’s executive director Rahul Shah said the current data centre capacity in India is significantly lower than the fast growing requirement.

“Being a high capex industry requiring significant capacity build up, we believe that there is a significant equity investment opportunity to back partners in creating capacities,” he said, adding that the fund will provide strategic risk capital to entities.

KIA’s managing director Srini Sriniwasan said India is at the cusp of a data revolution. “Digital Infra being built as a public good along with 5G roll out, Indians will be data rich before being financially rich!” he added.