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UK-based datacentre liquid cooling firm Iceotope Technologies secures £30m funding
Sheffield-based datacentre liquid cooling firm wins funding from environment-focused global investment syndicate
Sheffield-based datacentre immersion cooling systems manufacturer Iceotope Technologies has secured £30m in funding from a global investment syndicate that is focused on helping the server farm industry become more environmentally friendly.
The syndicate is led by Singapore private equity firm ABC Impact and involves several other parties, including electrical connection provider nVent and FTSE 250 investment company SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust.
News of the funding round secured by Iceotope comes at a time when there is growing interest within the datacentre industry in using liquid cooling technologies at sites where traditionally, air-cooling has proved to be the most popular means of regulating their temperature.
Liquid cooling is more commonly found in high-performance computing (HPC) environments or where compute-intensive processes are taking place because it enables more targeted and efficient cooling of the servers and kit carrying out these tasks.
David Craig, CEO of Iceotope Technologies, said the high level of funding the firm has secured is a ringing endorsement for liquid cooling as a concept.
“This significant investment, one of the largest amounts recently invested in liquid cooling, is a testament to the great work of our designers for our customers across the globe, as well as the many technology and channel partners that have placed their trust in our ability to cool datacentre servers more efficiently in a vertical rack form factor,” said Craig.
“Given the global importance of the datacentre sector, which can only increase as edge facilities proliferate and extend to the far reaches of civilisation, we look forward to accelerating our global deployment plan with the help of our new and existing investment partners.”
Read more about liquid cooling
- As demand for increasingly dense racks and compute-heavy workloads increases within datacentres, could this lead to a wholesale shift in preference from air- to liquid-based cooling systems? If so, at what cost to the environment?
- With machine learning fuelling demand for graphics processing units in the datacentre, Schneider Electric CTO claims this will require a drastic rethink of how operators manage their sites, paving the way for liquid cooling to hit mainstream adoption.
Tan Shao Ming, chief investment officer at ABC Impact, said one of the main reasons why it decided to invest in Iceotope is the energy-efficiency benefits its technology can bring to datacentre operators, which is important because sustainability is a keen area of focus for ther firm’s investment fund.
“Iceotope’s precision cooling solutions enable datacentres to transit to a more sustainable infrastructure with a reduced environmental and real estate footprint,” he said.
“By increasing efficiency in their use of energy and water, datacentres can contribute to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. We see vast potential to deploy this technology in Asia, especially regions with tropical climates, and we look forward to working with Iceotope to scale its positive impact.”
As well as funding, the syndicate’s involvement will pave the way for deeper technology collaborations between Iceotope and the other syndicate members, including nVent.
Joe Ruzynski, president of enclosures at nVent, said: “I’m excited to deepen our relationship with Iceotope. Together, we’ve created sustainable, innovative cooling solutions that efficiently solve for heat and avoid downtime in datacentres.
“Moving forward, we have the opportunity to build on our success and drive the next phase of precision immersion cooling solutions in an exciting and growing space.”
