Investment firm KKR has acquired liquid cooling provider CoolIT Systems.

The companies this week announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which KKR will acquire CoolIT. Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed, but the deal is expected to close in Q2 2023.

Founded in 2001, CoolIT designs, engineers, and manufactures advanced liquid cooling solutions for the data center and desktop markets, including its split-flow direct liquid cooling technology.

The investment, made through KKR’s Global Impact strategy, will ‘support CoolIT’s ability to scale and serve’ its customers across the data center market.

As part of this transaction, CoolIT will expand its equity ownership program to make all employees owners of the company.

“Our business has evolved tremendously over the past few years and today we are proud to be one of the most trusted providers of liquid cooling solutions to the global data center market,” said Steve Walton, CoolIT CEO. “KKR shares our perspective on the significant opportunity ahead for liquid cooling. Having access to KKR’s expertise, capital and resources will put us in an even better position to keep scaling, innovating, and delivering for our customers.”

According to Crunchbase, CoolIT had previously raised around $10 million over four funding rounds. Previous investors include the Business Development Bank of Canada, nVent, Kline Hill Partners, Vistara Capital Partners, Inovia Partners, AVAC Group, and Chart Venture Partners.

Kyle Matter, managing director and head of KKR’s Global Impact team in North America, said: “We believe that liquid cooling has a critical role to play in helping to reduce the emissions footprint of our digital economy and we are thrilled to back CoolIT, a leader in this space.”

Evan Kaufman, director at KKR, added: “By combining our manufacturing and decarbonization expertise with CoolIT’s track record of product innovation, we expect to further scale its best-in-class direct liquid cooling solution to meet the anticipated demand for higher density, more energy efficient data centers. Importantly, we look forward to working with Steve and the entire CoolIT management team to invest additional capital and resources into expanding its cooling solutions across new applications, customers, and end markets.”