ABC Impact, a Singapore-headquartered Asia-focused private equity firm, announced that it led the $36 million funding in Iceotope Technologies, a UK-based precision immersion cooling tech firm.
The investment marks ABC’s first foray in the UK since its inception, according to the announcement.
Joining ABC Impact in the investment syndicate are global electrical solutions provider nVent, Northern Gritstone, British Patient Capital, FTSE 250 investment company SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust, Pavilion Capital, and existing investor Edinv.
Founded in 2005 by Peter Hopton, Iceotope said its immersion cooling solutions are engineered to cool the whole IT stack from Hypserscale to the Extreme Edge. The technologies operate in near silence as it removes the need for fans and air-cooling infrastructure.
Iceotope’s cooling technology is an energy and water efficient solution to address the heat load from data centers, as data use increases globally.
Deploying Iceotope’s patented liquid cooling technology in place of traditional air-cooling measures reduces water and power consumption significantly, as well as lowers carbon emissions.
“We see vast potential to deploy this technology in Asia, especially in regions with tropical climates, and we look forward to working with Iceotope to scale its positive impact and address the growing climate change challenges we face,” said Tan Shao Ming, chief investment officer at ABC Impact.
The investment also comes three months after ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, one of the fastest growing global data centre
operators headquartered in Singapore, partnered with Iceotope and Schneider Electric to jointly conduct a proof-of-concept (POC) in Singapore.
The POC project aims to future-proof next-generation data centre builds and reduce both power and water consumption.
Earlier this year, the Singapore government lifted a data centre moratorium that has been in place since 2019 to pave the way for new data centre projects that must comply with new sustainable conditions. These new conditions include maintaining energy efficiency with a power usage effectiveness (PUE)1 of 1.3 and below.
“With data centres in Asia set to proliferate on the back of increasing IoT use and the rollout of 5G networks, the precision immersion cooling solutions developed by Iceotope will enable data centres to transit to a more sustainable infrastructure with reduced environmental and real estate footprint,” Tan added.
Backed by Temasek Trust, Temasek Holdings, Pavilion Capital, Mapletree, Seatown Holdings, and Sembcorp Industries, ABC closed its first fund in January 2020, raising S$405 million ($303 million). The impact investor has deployed S$98 million so far in at least five portfolio companies across Singapore, Vietnam, India, China, and Australia.