Investor and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath has invested ₹200 crore in CtrlS, one of India's largest hyperscale data centre operators, alongside a ₹50 crore investment by entrepreneur Sreeram Reddy Vanga. According to latest reports, this strategic investment will support CtrlS' infrastructure expansion and capacity build-out to meet growing enterprise and hyperscaler demand across India, particularly as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and digital workloads accelerate. The capital will enable the company to think bigger and move faster in building datacenter platforms that will support India's next phase of growth, with the funds specifically deployed towards expanding data centre infrastructure and building capacity to meet this demand. The investment was announced on Wednesday, as reported by Live Mint, with the company stating that this represents a significant milestone in their expansion strategy.
Founded by Sridhar Pinnapureddy, CtrlS has emerged as a key player in India's data centre industry, building and operating some of the country's advanced hyperscale facilities. As reported by Business Standard, the company operates 19 data centres across nine key markets in India, with over 370 MW of capacity and 4.4 GW of projects at various stages of execution. The company has established itself as a partner to enterprises, cloud providers, financial institutions and government organisations, underpinned by uptime standards, operational capabilities and a focus on security and sustainability. The company is also developing infrastructure designed for AI workloads as India's digital economy expands, positioning itself to capture the growing demand for AI-specific computing infrastructure. Founded in 2007, CtrlS has announced plans to expand overseas into the Middle East and Southeast Asia, starting with Thailand, as reported by Live Mint.
In July this year, CtrlS secured a strategic partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), which committed up to ₹7,000 crore to fund CtrlS's growth. According to Economic Times, CPP Investments will acquire an 8.2% stake for ₹4,000 crore and invest up to ₹3,000 crore in a joint venture to develop hyperscale data centre campuses. This partnership represents continued confidence in the company's growth trajectory and market position in India's expanding digital infrastructure sector, with the latest entrepreneur-backed investment underscoring the growing investor interest in India's data centre sector as AI applications require increasingly powerful computing infrastructure. The investment follows a prior ₹7,000-crore commitment from CPP Investments to scale operations, with the company securing an investment commitment of up to ₹7,000 crore from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at a valuation of ₹44,914 crore to scale up its operations in India.
Sridhar Pinnapureddy, founder and chief executive officer of CtrlS Datacenters, expressed delight at welcoming the new investors, stating that the partnership aligns with the company's long-term vision for India's digital economy. According to Business Standard, Nikhil Kamath emphasized that every meaningful technology shift of the next decade, AI, cloud, and digital public infrastructure, runs on data centres, highlighting that India is at an inflection point where infrastructure either keeps pace or becomes a bottleneck. "India is at an inflexion point where the underlying infrastructure either keeps pace or becomes the bottleneck. CtrlS has spent years building the kind of depth that does not get assembled overnight. That is what made this an easy decision," Kamath stated. Vanga highlighted that India's AI and cloud ambitions will require world-class digital infrastructure at scale, while also praising CtrlS founder Sridhar Pinnapureddy's long-term approach to building the company. Pinnapureddy had previously stated that India's AI moment is not on the horizon, it is already here, with the partnership not merely expanding capacity but also establishing the benchmark for AI-ready infrastructure in one of the world's most significant digital markets.
