I Squared Capital, through its ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund III, has established nLighten, an edge datacenter platform dedicated to delivering solutions for traditional and low-latency use cases. I Squared has committed more than $500m of equity to support nLighten’s ambition to bring high quality colocation services to underserved cities and regions across Europe.
What is the expertise of nLighten’s management team?
nLighten is part of I Squared Capital’s global datacenter portfolio, including KIO in the Americas and BDx in Asia. nLighten is led by former senior executives from Equinix, including Harro Beusker, Co-Founder and CEO, and Chad McCarthy, Co-Founder and CTO.
Harro has held various leadership roles at Equinix, including SVP of Corporate Development for EMEA, MD Germany and Netherlands and Interim Managing Director France, and Chad was most recently Equinix’s Global Head of Engineering Development and Master Planning.
Both were vital in the development of Equinix’s business in EMEA and key global initiatives like its hyperscale platform, xScale. Other members of the team include Christian Zipp, former VP of Sales of Germany and Netherlands for Digital Realty and prior to that Regional Vice President of Sales in Germany for Equinix, and Martin Essig, former MD of Telecity Germany.
What are nLighten’s plans for the first year of operation?
nLighten’s initial focus will be in Germany, where it expects to open ten strategic locations in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg, and Stuttgart in the second half of 2023. Via nationwide footprint and connectivity partnerships, nLighten intends to offer a latency of 2-6 milliseconds to most 5G and last-mile users.
The company is also pursuing the deployment of innovative energy solutions, including grid stabilization and the recovery and export of heat to nearby buildings and utility networks.
“With our experienced team, we are looking to create a step-change in the datacenter industry. We will be close to the client, bring connectivity ecosystems to regional markets, and support the energy transition,” said Harro Beusker, CEO and Co-Founder of nLighten.
