IXcellerate, Russia’s third largest data center operator, today announced that it has raised $190m in financing from existing and new investors including Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund; SberInvest, the investment management subsidiary of Sberbank; and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.
To-date, IXcellerate’s investors also include Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group (SSG), Sumitomo Corporation, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.
IXcellerate – Data Centers in Russia
Founded in 2010, IXcellerate provides carrier-neutral data center services on both a retail and wholesale basis in Moscow, Russia. As such, IXcellerate will use the proceeds from Mubadala, SberInvest, and RDIF’s $190m funding round to expand its Moscow North and Moscow South campuses.
Below is further detail on the potential for IXcellerate’s two data center campuses in Moscow, Russia at full build-out:
Moscow North
IXcellerate’s Moscow North campus will comprise three data centers, namely MOS1, MOS2 and MOS3. Collectively, these facilities can deliver 32 megawatts of IT load, supporting 5.9k server racks, across 229k sqft (21.3k sqm) of white space.
Also, in terms of connectivity, Moscow North has access to 50+ telecom operators and multiple internet exchanges, including Eurasia Peering and MSK-IX.
Moscow South
IXcellerate’s Moscow South campus will comprise four data centers, namely MOS5, MOS6, MOS7, and MOS8. Together, these facilities can deliver 250 megawatts of total power capacity, supporting 17k+ server racks, across 1.5 million sqft (138k sqm) of total area.
Initially, the MOS5 data center will offer 63 megawatts of total power capacity and support 5.1k server racks, once fully developed.
IXcellerate – Business and Strategy
By 2023, IXcellerate plans to grow its operational data center portfolio to 15k racks. In turn, the company expects to gain up to 25% market share of Russia’s colocation market.
Customers
IXcellerate counts 150+ customers from sectors including financial institutions, cloud service providers (particularly Chinese), content operators, IT companies, carriers, and large enterprises.
For example, IXcellerate names Tencent Cloud, Huawei, Nvidia, Rackspace, NTT, Softline, Nestlé, Refinitiv, Orange Business Services, Zenlayer, and Agricultural Bank of China, as customers. In early 2019, IXcellerate disclosed that Tencent Cloud had deployed 600+ racks at its MOS1 data center, over the prior 12 months.
Leadership
IXcellerate is led by Andrei Aksenov as Chief Executive Officer who was appointed to the position in July 2021, replacing Guy Willner, who became the company’s Chairman of the Board. Prior to IXcellerate, Aksenov headed Strela Telecom, a regional broadband internet and cable TV provider, and OSG Records Management, a records management and storage company in Russia and CIS.
Competitors
Overall, competitors to IXcellerate in Russia include Rostelecom (DataLine), DataPro, MTS (Avantage), Selectel, and Linxdatacenter.
