Fast-growing independent data centre operator Teraco Data Environments has increased the size of its medium-term funding facility to R400m. The additional funding has been secured from Barclays Africa.

“This facility, together with internally generated funds, is earmarked for continuing our large-scale investments into data centre infrastructure roll-outs,” said Teraco chief financial officer Jan Hnizdo in a statement.

The news comes just weeks after Teraco announced that it is being acquired. That deal, the value of which was not disclosed, is being led through funds from international private equity firm Permira.

“The Permira funds’ investment will support the company’s growth plans, including the strengthening of its sales and marketing platform and its expansion into sub-Saharan Africa,” Teraco said in a statement in December.

At the time, Teraco CEO Lex van Wyk told TechCentral that Teraco plans to build a second large data centre in Johannesburg to complement its site in Isando, east of the city. The new data centre is likely to be of a similar size, or about 4 000q m. However, the Permira funds were not needed to fund the construction of the new facility.

The Permira transaction is still subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.

Teraco has quickly established itself as the top “carrier neutral” data centre operator in sub-Saharan Africa since its founding six years ago. It operates colocation data centre facilities at which clients can deploy telecommunications equipment and other IT infrastructure. From there, they can connect to submarine cable systems, local terrestrial networks, content aggregation hubs and other African Internet backbone networks.

The company operates three data centres in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg which combined, comprise 10MVA of power plant.

Hnizdo said on Tuesday that the Barclays Africa funding facility will allow for the construction of a large new data centre in Johannesburg to meet “continued client demand”.