I Squared Capital establishes nLighten, a European edge datacenter platform
February 08, 2023 08:43 AM Eastern Standard Time – LONDON I Squared Capital, through its ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund III, has established nLighten, an edge data center platform dedicated to delivering solutions for both traditional and low-latency use cases. I Squared has committed more than $500 million of equity to support nLighten’s ambition to bring high quality colocation services to underserved cities and regions across Europe. nLighten is part of I Squared Capital’s global data center portfolio, including KIO in the Americas and BDx in Asia.
“We will be close to the customer, bring connectivity ecosystems to regional markets, and actively support the energy transition.”
nLighten is led by former senior executives from Equinix, including Harro Beusker, Co-Founder and CEO, and Chad McCarthy, Co-Founder and CTO. Harro has held various leadership roles at Equinix, including SVP of Corporate Development for EMEA, Managing Director Germany and Netherlands and Interim Managing Director France, and Chad was most recently Equinix’s Global Head of Engineering Development and Master Planning. Both were instrumental in the development of Equinix’s business in EMEA as well as key global initiatives like its hyperscale platform, xScale. Other members of the management team include Christian Zipp, former VP of Sales of Germany and Netherlands for Digital Realty and before that Regional VP of Sales in Germany for Equinix, and Martin Essig, former MD of Telecity Germany.nLighten’s initial focus will be in Germany, where it expects to open ten strategic locations in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg, and Stuttgart in the second half of 2023. Through the combination of a distributed nationwide footprint and innovative connectivity partnerships, nLighten intends to offer a latency of 2 to 6 milliseconds to most 5G and last-mile users. The company is also pursuing the deployment of innovative energy solutions, including grid stabilization and the recovery and export of heat to nearby buildings and utility networks.“With our team of experienced professionals, we are looking to create a step-change in the datacenter industry,” said Harro Beusker, CEO and Co-Founder of nLighten. “We will be close to the customer, bring connectivity ecosystems to regional markets, and actively support the energy transition.”
About I Squared Capital
I Squared Capital is an independent global infrastructure investment manager with over $36 billion in assets under management focusing on energy, utilities, digital infrastructure, environmental infrastructure, transport and social infrastructure in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. The firm has offices in Miami, Hong Kong, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Taipei, and Sydney.
About nLighten
With its German headquarter in Eschborn, near Frankfurt am Main, nLighten is a digital infrastructure platform and a portfolio company of I Squared Capital. We are developing ten innovative data centers distributed across Germany’s key economic hubs to provide best-in-class network access to local industry, private users and the mobile workforce.
The strategic distribution of nLighten data centers, enables the company to have a country-wide presence in all key German cities and offers access to low latency and proximity to their end-users. The nLighten data centers are designed to meet the increasing demand for faster and more reliable data processing and storage, while also being mindful of environmental impact.
nLighten was founded in 2021 by a core team with many years’ experience and wide-ranging expertise in the data center sector. The team’s main motivation was to create the next step for the data center industry and align data centers with the green transition.
nLighten acquired its initial data centers from EXA Infrastructure (both portfolio companies of I Squared Capital) and plans to begin operations in the second half of 2023. nLighten’s goal is to set up and operate multiple leading edge data center platforms in Europe.
The strategic distribution of nLighten data centers, enables the company to have a country-wide presence in all key German cities and offers access to low latency and proximity to their end-users. The nLighten data centers are designed to meet the increasing demand for faster and more reliable data processing and storage, while also being mindful of environmental impact.
nLighten was founded in 2021 by a core team with many years’ experience and wide-ranging expertise in the data center sector. The team’s main motivation was to create the next step for the data center industry and align data centers with the green transition.
nLighten acquired its initial data centers from EXA Infrastructure (both portfolio companies of I Squared Capital) and plans to begin operations in the second half of 2023. nLighten’s goal is to set up and operate multiple leading edge data center platforms in Europe.
