Alternative investment firm H.I.G. Capital has acquired a majority stake in new Nordic data center firm Polar.
H.I.G. this week announced one of its affiliates had acquired a controlling interest in PolarDC Group Limited, Terms of the deal were not shared, but the Lian Group will retain a minority stake in Polar.
Update: Lian's own announcement said the deal is worth "up to €500 million" including anticipated debt financing of €350 million.
The investment firm said Polar's first data center in Norway will provide up to 48MW of capacity once fully operational – with 100 percent of its initial capacity pre-sold – and that the firm is actively developing several other data center projects across Europe.
Andrew Liau, co-head of H.I.G. Infrastructure, said: "We are extremely excited by this transaction as data center infrastructure is becoming an increasingly critical enabler of the next wave of digital transformation. We look forward to working with Polar's highly respected management team and our co-investor, Lian Group, by bringing H.I.G.'s extensive capabilities and relationships to support the company's growth."
Launched just last month, Polar bills itself as a developer of the “next generation of data centers to facilitate the latest developments in HPC and AI workloads.”
On its website, Polar says it has two AI-ready data centers available for customer deployment.
DRA01, located on a 60,000 sqm (645,835 sq ft) plot in southeast Norway, reportedly has 12MW of IT load immediately available, with another 36MW in development. Polar said the site uses free cooling, with rear door heat exchangers or direct liquid cooling options for HPC.
DAL01, located on a 19,000 sqm (204,515) plot 35km outside Bergen, reportedly has 20MW available with another 45MW in development. The site is said to be an existing industrial building previously used for manufacturing, and described as ready for fit-out for client needs. Polar said the site will use river cooling.
Polar is led by CEO Andy Hayes, who was previously CTO at hyperscale developer Yondr.
Hayes said: "We are delighted to partner with H.I.G. to develop our pipeline of projects. H.I.G.'s investment in the company, combined with its track record of supporting high-growth, early-stage companies, will allow Polar to benefit from the rapid development of artificial intelligence."
Polar was founded by Fiorenzo Manganiello and Nessim-Sariel Gaon, who both co-founded and lead Lian Group, a technology investment company with more than $400 million of capital deployed. Founded in 2017, Lian says its institutional clients include family offices, private banks, and UHNWI.
Lian said Manganiello and Gaon will continue to "play an essential role" at Polar and remain close to its day-to-day operations.
Lian has previously invested in crypto firm Bitfury, while Manganiello and Gaon are also founders of Cowa, a European blockchain firm. Gaon is also a co-founder of Israeli data center firm Anan Data alongside former Lian partner Marc Lugassy.
Fiorenzo Manganiello, co-founder of Lian Group, added: "Polar's future-proofed infrastructure will deliver truly innovative solutions as connectivity, power, and cooling demands grow among the world's leading cloud computing providers."
Founded in 1993, H.I.G. is a global alternative investment firm with $65 billion of capital under management. While it has invested in a number of IT services firms, it is not traditionally known as a major investor in data centers.
H.I.G.'s previous investments include semiconductor firm Agere Systems, telecoms network planning provider Aircom, fiber company Fibercore, and subsea telecom company Xtera.
