Hyderabad-based data center operator CtrlS DataCentres has raised ₹250 crore in equity from Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath and adtech entrepreneur Sreeram Reddy Vanga to boost infrastructure expansion and meet surging demand in India’s AI and cloud sectors.
- ₹250 Cr equity raised from Nikhil Kamath and Sreeram Reddy Vanga
- Plans to expand compute capacity amid AI and cloud growth
- CtrlS exploring international markets including Southeast Asia
What happened
CtrlS DataCentres, a leading Indian data center company headquartered in Hyderabad, has secured ₹250 crore in equity funding. Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath contributed ₹200 crore, while the remainder was invested by Sreeram Reddy Vanga, cofounder of the adtech firm Kofluence. Founded in 2007, CtrlS operates 19 data center campuses spread across nine key Indian hubs including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Noida, and Bengaluru.
The fresh capital injection aims to enable CtrlS to scale its infrastructure and capacity in response to increasing enterprise and hyperscaler data demands driven by AI, cloud computing, and digital transformation. The company is also testing international expansion with plans for a 150 MW hyperscale data center campus in Thailand and intends to grow further in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Why it matters
India’s digital ecosystem is witnessing rapid growth fueled by AI adoption, cloud migration, and evolving data localization policies, creating intense demand for advanced data center capacity. CtrlS, with an operational compute capacity of 370 MW and 4.4 GW under development, is positioning itself to become a major player in this environment by targeting a 4 GW capacity by 2031.
The investment from prominent tech leaders highlights strong market confidence in the data center sector’s growth potential. It also complements earlier major funding rounds such as a $4.8 billion valuation and commitments from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, signaling significant capital inflows in India’s data infrastructure landscape. These developments coincide with expanding investments by global tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI in Indian data center projects.
What to watch next
Industry observers should track how CtrlS executes its capacity expansion plans, particularly in emerging international markets such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Success in overseas markets could position the company among global hyperscale data center operators originating from India.
Additionally, monitoring collaborations and investment flows from both domestic and foreign technology firms will be key to understanding India’s evolving data infrastructure ecosystem. The trajectory of India’s total data center capacity, projected to exceed 8 GW by 2030, and the role of new green data centers and AI-enabled facilities will also be important indicators of sector growth.