The co-founders of Web Werks, Nikhil and Nishant Rathi, have exited the data centre firm by selling their entire stake to US-based Iron Mountain for Rs 1400 crore.
The two will continue to retain ownership of their software development business, NeoSOFT, and will scale up their technology and digital services platform, NeoNXT, going forward.
Iron Mountain had earlier invested $150 million in Web Werks in 2021 and another $170 million in 2023. The co-founders, however, did not share details on the bifurcation of the stakes picked up by Iron Mountain on all three occasions.
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“We had the option to stay longer, but felt that this was the right time and the right valuation to exit,” Nikhil Rathi told FE.
The 2023 investment from Iron Mountain came through the formation of a joint venture, which, over the past two years, has launched three new data centres in the country.
“We completed building three new data centres in a span of 18 months and got customers in those data centres in 22 months,” Nikhil Rathi added.
The exit comes with a non-compete clause for the brother duo under which they cannot hold more than 26% in a data centre firm in India till the end of FY27. However, they can operate in markets like the Middle East where demand for data centres is picking up, they said.
The two will now focus on building NeoNXT, driving initiatives that leverage digital and artificial intelligence.
“We also look forward to lending our expertise and partnering with investors, entrepreneurs & VCs, and committed to mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs and growing the data centre industry both in India and globally,” Nishant Rathi, Co-Founder of Web Werks and NeoSOFT.
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Nikhil Rathi compared the vision for NeoNXT to Reliance Industries’ Jio Platforms, which handles the digital services arm of the oil-to-telcom giant. NeoSOFT currently has a workforce of 4000 and provides digital engineering and enterprise modernisation services across sectors like hospitality, e-commerce, healthcare, manufacturing and telecom.
With this acquisition, Iron Mountain’s data centre portfolio in India now has 14 MW of capacity across six data centres across Mumbai,
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