AirTrunk, one of the region’s best-funded startups, banks $621m for expansion

AirTrunk’s data center in Sydney, Australia / Photo credit: AirTrunk

Singapore-founded AirTrunk just secured US$621 million in funding to finance a “major expansion” of its data centers in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney, as well as in other Asia-Pacific markets.

AirTrunk has indicated that it plans to open facilities in Hong Kong and Singapore in the near future.

The funding includes debt financing in addition to capital from AirTrunk’s existing investors Goldman Sachs and TSSP, as well as from the startup’s founder and CEO Robin Khuda.

See: One of Singapore’s best-funded startups is ‘hyperscaling’ Asia Pacific’s data centers

AirTrunk specializes in building and operating “hyperscale” data centers, aimed at meeting Asia-Pacific’s booming demand for cloud services while maximizing energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

It does this by implementing a single computer architecture that can be rapidly and simply scaled by bringing more machines online as and when they are needed.

AirTrunk scored Singapore’s third-largest fundraising round of 2017, a year which saw Southeast Asia pull in record venture funding.

The startup banked US$307 million in February 2017 from Goldman Sachs and TPG Capital, an amount only outsripped by Grab’s reported US$2 billion-plus raise and the US$550 million bagged by Sea in the run-up to its IPO.

See: Southeast Asia sees record startup funding in 2017

Deutsche Bank was the lead arranger, underwriter, and bookrunner for the senior secured debt facilities that made up part of the funding announced today.

Currency converted from Australian dollar. Rate: US$1 = A$1.37