The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has approved the acquisition of IT company Datacentrix by pan-African tech PE firm Convergence Partners from Aliviva Holdings, five months after the deal was first announced.
The deal, whose financial details were not disclosed, will see 25-year-old Datacentrix expand its operations to the rest of the continent by leveraging on the infrastructure assets of other pan-African Convergence Partners portfolio companies. The Competition Commission approved the deal in February and with the ICASA greenlight, the deal has now successfully clearly all probable regulatory hurdles.
“The boom of data centres and AI in Africa means Datacentrix is positioned to build server and computing infrastructure to support this growth,” said Andile Ngcaba, chairman of Convergence Partners.
The deal marks Convergence Partners’ latest acquisition through its $296 million digital infrastructure fund closed in January 2023. In April 2023, the fund invested $10 million in 42Markets. The same month, it acquired a stake in telecoms infrastructure company CSquared previously held by Google. It also made an undisclosed investment into fintech startup Yellow’s Series B round in June 2023.
To support the company’s pan-African expansion, Ngcaba said Datacentrix would leverage the support of other Convergence Partners portfolio companies who have a presence across the continent.
“There will be a lot of complementarity for Datacentrix in markets where other Convergence Partners companies have a footprint,” added Ngcaba.
Founded in 1998, Datacentrix specialises in IT infrastructure supply, integration, support, and maintenance for enterprise clients as well as the public sector. In addition to its South Africa stronghold, it also has operations in the Middle East, Dubai and Qatar.