Modular edge data centre producer DataQube raises €26 million

Cambridge-based DataQube has raised €26 million in a Series A funding round. The startup has developed a scalable data centre solution that can be up and running within six months at half the cost of a traditional deployment and consuming 50% less electricity. The funding is expected to help the company aggressively market its offer and has recently opened an office in Luxembourg to support this initiative.

DataQube is addressing a fundamental paradox of our modern age: as we aim to lower carbon footprints and support sustainability initiatives, our appetite for more and faster data grows larger and larger. And in order to fuel this desire for data, more and more data centres are being built, consuming more and more electricity.

"Today, the Internet already consumes 10% of the world's electricity, and if we don't change the way data centres are built, this figure could rise to 50% by 2030," explains Philippe Rechsteiner, CFO of DataQube.

Through its development of modular units that, when assembled, form a coherent data centre, DataQube is targeting installations within existing buildings. Their logic is through the repurposing of existing urban infrastructures, not only are they placing data centres closer to the end-user (transporting data accounts for one-third of the total electricity consumed by the web), but cutting out the need to construct new facilities, thereby further reducing CO2 emissions.

DataQube’s €26 million in financing was provided by Paris-based RGreen Invest.

"We are delighted to have the support of an investor with a proven track record in green infrastructure and technology," commented DataQube CEO David Keegan. "Our goal is to provide the data centre industry with a solution that has a significantly reduced environmental footprint. To date, the measures taken have been woefully inadequate and the overall energy consumption of the Internet continues to increase by 5-7% per year.”