Kotak Mahindra Bank plans to raise up to $1 billion to invest in data centers. In line with this, Kotak Alternate Assets, a Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd (KIAL) division, announced Subhamkar Das’s appointment as a Chief Operating Officer for the Kotak Data Center Funds platform, as per an official statement.
According to market sources, the private sector lender’s arm plans to raise between USD 500-USD 1 billion for the fund, which will be plowed into the data center industry. The DC stock in India exceeded 9 million sq. ft. with a 600+MW capacity in India. Data center investment in India is expected to surpass USD 20 billion by 2025.
KIAL has raised, managed, and advised in aggregate of over USD 6.8 billion across different asset classes, including real estate, private equity, infrastructure, special situations fund, and investment advisory, since its inception in 2005. Typically, it raises money from investors to be betted on opportunities it sees for higher returns, and it usually puts in its own money.
The data center business has attracted investments from several players lately, including announcements by industrial houses like Adanis and Hiranandanis.
Srini Sriniwasan, Managing Director of Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd, said:
“India is at the cusp of a “data explosion” and the company expects the industry to grow from 650 MW to 2.2 GW over the next five years, which will be requiring an investment of $7 billion. Kotak has always been trying to identify new investment opportunities and has invested in empowered teams to execute plans to meet investors’ target expectations. Onboarding of Subhamkar will set the tone for Kotak Data Center Funds platform, as he will be adding strength and depth to the future plans and objective of building scale to our platform.”
Subhamkar Das, who has an experience of over two decades and joins the fund from Nxtra Data, will be a senior member of KIAL’s alternate asset management team that will help build the data center practice at KIAL, the statement said.
