GI Partners has exceeded its initial $1.25bn (€1.1bn) fundraising target for its maiden data infrastructure fund by 44% after receiving commitments from global investors.
The manager said the GI Data Infrastructure Fund surpassed its initial target to raise $1.8bn at final close.
As previously reported, the Washington State Investment Board was committing $175m to the fund and a further $75m of co-investment capital. Ohio Public Employees Retirement System also made a $200m commitment to the data centre fund.
The fund’s global investor base representing 11 countries includes sovereign wealth funds, pensions, financial institutions, investment management firms, foundations, and family offices, the manager said.
GI Partners said the fund will invest across four data infrastructure sub-sectors data centres, data transport, wireless access, and tech-enabled infrastructure, primarily in North America.
In January this year, the fund invested in DR Fortress, a data centre business in Hawaii. In June, it bought Blue Stream Fiber, a high-speed broadband provider in Florida.
Steve Smith, managing director of GI Partners, said: “Technology and communications are the largest and fastest-growing drivers of the global economy and the infrastructure that supports these sectors is critical to the operation of every business, government, and household in the developed world.
“The disruption we have all experienced in 2020 due to the global pandemic has only served to underline the importance of data infrastructure to everyone’s life.”
Mark Prybutok, a managing director of GI Partners, said: “A core thesis of our fund is to invest in elements of infrastructure closer to the end-user that will support both existing needs, as well as the next generation of critical applications utilising 5G technology, private networks, the Internet of Things, machine learning, and other innovations.”
Philip Yau, managing director of GI Partners, said, “We are grateful for the strong support of our investors, both our existing limited partners and the many new investors to GI Partners.
“We welcome the opportunity to be both a capital and thought partner in the data infrastructure space to our investors as well our portfolio companies.”
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