Cube Infrastructure Managers (Cube IM) is selling its majority stake in German data centre operator Firstcolo to CVC DIF after a four-year holding period.
Cube IM, which acquired the Frankfurt-based colocation provider in November 2022 via Cube Infrastructure Fund III, said the deal marks its first exit in the data centre sector.
The two founders of Firstcolo – Jerome Evans and Nicolaj Kamensek – will remain shareholders of Firstcolo and continue to lead the company.
CVC DIF said it is acquiring its majority position via its DIF Value Add IV fund to gain exposure to the supply-constrained Frankfurt market, where Firstcolo operates two near-fully-utilised data centres and is constructing a new 24MW FRA7 data centre in Rosbach.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Founded in 2007, Firstcolo provides colocation, dedicated cloud hardware, cloud, connectivity and managed services to more than 350 enterprise customers.
Willem Jansonius, managing partner at CVC DIF and co-head of the DIF value-add strategy, said: “Firstcolo represents a rare opportunity to invest in a high-quality, founder-led colocation platform in an attractive and supply-constrained FLAP-D data centre markets.
“The company combines a resilient, cash-generative existing business with a substantially de-risked expansion project and a differentiated service offering for enterprise customers.”
Stefan Moosmann, head of DACH at CVC DIF, said: “Firstcolo is a strong example of CVC DIF’s local-for-local approach in action. The opportunity was sourced through our Frankfurt team’s local network and developed in seamless collaboration with our pan-European digital infrastructure team.
“By combining local market access with deep sector and execution expertise, we were able to develop strong conviction in the business and a clear plan to support its next phase of growth.”
Evans, CEO of Firstcolo, said: “This partnership marks an important new chapter for Firstcolo and strengthens our ability to execute our long-term growth strategy. FRA7 is more than a single data-centre development – it is the first building block of a scalable, high-performance infrastructure platform designed to support the next generation of AI, cloud and enterprise workloads in Germany.”
Kamensek, COO of Firstcolo, said: “FRA7 is being designed as a highly efficient, AI-ready facility with the power, cooling, connectivity and operational processes required for demanding high-density workloads. The experience gained through its delivery will provide a practical blueprint for the planning and operation of further data centres.”
Xavier Martin, head of telecoms and digital at Cube IM, said: “Since our investment in Firstcolo, we have partnered with the management team to transform Firstcolo into a scalable growth platform and built the foundations to increase the company’s data centre capacity by an order of magnitude.
“It is now time to pass the torch to a new owner to fulfil this growth ambition. The Cube IM team aims to repeat this successful cycle with the rest of the digital assets in our portfolio.”
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