DataBank has raised $456 million in what it says is its first green financing round, and will use the proceeds to refinance debts it incurred building out its data center portfolio.

The Texas company says this is its fourth securitization since 2021. It makes the size of its total securitized portfolio $2.16 billion of investment-grade bonds.

Cash from the funding round, which comes from nine new investors as well as a host of existing backers, will be used to “refinance a previous bridge loan put in place to purchase four data centers in the Houston market from CyrusOne in 2022 and to fund the development of additional data center capacity across the DataBank platform,” the company said.

"This financing reflects not only DataBank's commitment to sustainability and efficiency, but also the tremendous growth opportunity ahead of us, and the value and stability of our portfolio's earnings," said Kevin Ooley, DataBank's president & CFO. "It signals the strong endorsement of investors in our strategy, footprint, and ability to execute profitably across that entire portfolio."

DataBank operates more than 65 facilities across North America, as well as a UK site in Feltham, Middlesex.

In October 2023, it raised $533 million of capital, through a combination of debt and equity, to build new data centers. The company said at the time it needed the money to meet the capacity demands of AI applications.

Its previous securitizations comprised $658m of notes issued in March 2021, $330m of notes issued in October that year, and another $715m of notes issued in March last year.

For this latest funding to qualify as a green bond, the facilities being refinanced had to meet specific sustainability criteria for water conservation, carbon emissions reduction, and a low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), DataBank said.

These projects, “as well as others underway across DataBank's portfolio, are all contributing to its goal of being carbon neutral by 2030,” it said.