CtrlS Datacenters, an Indian data center operator headquartered in Hyderabad, has welcomed entrepreneurs Nikhil Kamath and Sreeram Reddy Vanga as investors who have committed Rs 200 crore (US$ 20.9 million) and Rs 50 crore (US$ 5.2 million) to the company respectively.
The investments come as India builds capacity for AI, cloud, and digital workloads to advance the next phase of the country’s digital economy, a mission central to CtrlS’s strategy.
“We are delighted to welcome Nikhil Kamath and Sreeram Reddy Vanga as investors in CtrlS. It gives us the ability to think bigger, move faster, and continue building datacenter platforms that will support India’s next phase of growth,” Sridhar Pinnapureddy, CtrlS Founder and Chief Executive Officer, told Business Today.
Both Kamath and Vanga have a long list of successful ventures. Kamath is the co-founder of India’s top brokerage platform and trading community Zerodha, which has over 16 million customers and Rs 6 lakh crore (US$ 62.7 billion) in equity investments on the platform. Vanga’s most recent venture is Kofluence, which helps content creators monetize their influence.
In June, w.media reported on a CtrlS announcement regarding a strategic partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore (US$ 739 million). The investment bought CPP Investments an 8.2 percent stake in CtrlS for Rs 4,000 crore (US$ 422 million). The pair also established a joint venture which will build hyperscale data center campuses across India. CPP Investments committed Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 317 million) to the joint venture and holds 48 percent equity ownership, with CtrlS controlling the other 52 percent.
CtrlS operates 19 data centers across nine markets with over 370 MW of capacity. The company also boasts 4.4 GW of projects at various stages of execution according to a LinkedIn post. Readers will recall w.media’s coverage of the firm’s first greenfield data center in Kolkata with an IT load of up to 16 MW in its first phase, scaling to 60 MW.
India is set to become one of the most attractive infrastructure investment markets in Asia-Pacific, according to analysis by Wood Mackenzie. AI-dedicated capacity is expected to expand from 275 MW in 2025 to 6.5 GW by 2030. This growth comes as a result of the convergence of hyperscale capital, AI workload growth, and policy support. Together these place India behind China for existing and upcoming data center capacity.