Flexenclosure, a Sweden maker of modular data center and telecoms enclosures received $24m investment from the private arm of the World Bank.

The company is active in Africa and across Asia and attracted the finance from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group focused on the private sector.

The capital will be used to further develop Flexenclosure’s eSite and eCentre technologies, ”green” ICT solutions aimed mainly at the developing markets in Asia and Africa. eSite is a portfolio of energy-efficient hybrid power systems for base station sites in areas where grid power is unreliable or unavailable. eSite can deliver a 90 per cent reduction in diesel fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and energy related operating expenses compared to traditional diesel based systems, the company said.
“An estimated 800,000 cellular base stations in emerging markets rely on diesel generators for their power supply,” said Andrew Bartley, IFC’s Chief Investment Officer for Telecoms, Media, and Technology. “This is a great potential market for Flexenclosure’s innovative product offering. Its growth strategy is directly aligned with IFC’s goal to improve access to mobile-phone systems for people in rural areas in emerging markets while also reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions.”
“We have an aggressive research and development programme and are growing our sales operations in emerging markets. During the last year we have opened offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Dubai,” said Flexenclosure’s CEO David King. “Having IFC as a strategic investor will give us access to their global expertise and network, further enhancing our expansion strategy.”
The company eCentre as is a prefabricated, fully equipped modular data centre solution, to house and power data and telecom equipment. Fully integrated into eSite is eManager, a one-stop interface for remote management and energy optimisation of eSite networks.
Flexenclosure (publ.) was founded in 1989 and is based in Vara, Sweden,
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector.