Pi Datacenters, which has formally commenced construction work last week near Vijayawada, is going to raise Rs 240 crore in two tranches by the end of 2016 calendar year. Construction work on the first phase of the project will begin in the next two months at the 10-acre plot at Mangalagiri.

“We have raised Rs 30 crore from friends and family. We will raise Rs 120 crore in Series-A funding by September. Bulk of the investments would come from institutional funds with a technology domain background. We are in talks with a few players from Japan, Taiwan and Singapore investors,” Kalyan Muppaneni, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pi Datacenters, told Business Line.

This would be followed by Series-B funding to raise a similar amount by the end of 2016.

“The first phase would have 500 racks by April 2016. We will be adding 200-500 racks every 3-6 months thereafter,” he said.

The firm formally commenced works on the site last week. When all phases are ready, it would have 300 people and a turnover of Rs 600 crore by 2018.

Stating that the demand for datacentre services is increasing in the country after the government’s digitisation drive, Kalyan pegged the size of opportunity at Rs 8,400 crore (about $1.4 billion). Quoting analyst reports, he said the number could grow to Rs 18,000 crore in the next 3-5 years.

For disaster recovery services (an alternative centre where the data is stored to protect against natural disasters), the firm would initially tie up with a third party. “Pretty soon after that, we will have our own data centre elsewhere to offer recovery services,” he said.

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