CVC DIF, the infrastructure arm of global private markets manager CVC, has agreed to acquire a significant majority stake in firstcolo Holding GmbH, a Frankfurt-based colocation data center operator, from Cube Infrastructure Managers. The transaction will be made through DIF Value Add IV and is expected to close by the end of September 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

A Founder-Led Platform in a Supply-Constrained Market

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Frankfurt, firstcolo serves more than 350 enterprise customers across two operational colocation data centers in the city.

The company offers a broad range of services including colocation, dedicated cloud hardware, cloud, connectivity and managed services. Its integrated one-stop-shop model has underpinned long-standing customer relationships, recurring revenues and low churn, according to CVC DIF.

Frankfurt sits within what the data center industry refers to as the FLAP-D markets, a grouping of Europe's leading data center hubs that includes Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin.

CVC DIF described Frankfurt as a structurally supply-constrained market, with demand driven by growing adoption of cloud services, enterprise digitalization and resilient digital infrastructure requirements. The firm characterised its investment as a rare opportunity to gain exposure to a high-quality, founder-led platform in that environment.

firstcolo will continue to be led by its existing management team, which includes CEO and co-founder Jerome Evans, COO and co-founder Nicolaj Kamensek, and CFO Dennis Bergfeld. The company was previously owned by Cube Infrastructure Managers, which CVC DIF credited with preparing the business for its next phase of growth.

FRA7: A 24 MW Greenfield Development in Rosbach

A central pillar of firstcolo's expansion strategy is FRA7, a new data center currently under construction in Rosbach, located within the Frankfurt metropolitan region.

The facility will provide 24 megawatts of total gross capacity. CVC DIF noted that the site, power supply, required planning permits and fixed-price turnkey construction arrangements are already in place, describing the project as substantially de-risked.

The development is being delivered in partnership with a regional utility provider, which will secure the energy supply for the facility. In addition, waste heat generated by the data center will be made available to support the local district heating supply, integrating the project into the surrounding community's energy infrastructure.

Firm tenant commitments are already in place, and CVC DIF cited strong customer demand as providing a solid foundation for the facility's ramp-up once operational.

Nicolaj Kamensek, COO and co-founder of firstcolo, described FRA7 as being designed as a highly efficient, AI-ready facility equipped with the power, cooling, connectivity and operational processes required for demanding high-density workloads.

Blueprint for a Broader German Platform

CVC DIF and firstcolo's management team have outlined ambitions that extend beyond the FRA7 project. The stated goal is to develop firstcolo into the leading German colocation data center platform, with plans to build further high-performance data centers in Frankfurt and other attractive German data center markets in the coming years.

Jerome Evans, CEO and co-founder of firstcolo, described FRA7 as the first building block of a scalable, high-performance infrastructure platform designed to support the next generation of AI, cloud and enterprise workloads in Germany.

He said the company intends to create what he called a sustainable and sovereign infrastructure platform combining technical excellence, operational reliability and long-term customer value.

Kamensek added that the experience gained through delivering FRA7 will serve as a practical blueprint for the planning and operation of further data centers as the company scales.

He said firstcolo's priority as it expands will be to maintain consistent standards across the platform while preserving the personalised service and operational responsiveness that have defined its customer relationships since the company's founding.

Local Network Sourcing and Pan-European Execution

CVC DIF highlighted the transaction as an example of what it described as its local-for-local approach to deal origination and execution. Stefan Moosmann, Head of DACH at CVC DIF, said the opportunity was sourced through the firm's Frankfurt team's local network and developed in collaboration with its pan-European digital infrastructure team.

Willem Jansonius, Managing Partner at CVC DIF and Co-head of the DIF Value Add strategy, said firstcolo combines a resilient, cash-generative existing business with a substantially de-risked expansion project and a differentiated service offering for enterprise customers.

He said CVC DIF looks forward to working with the firstcolo management team to deliver FRA7 and support the company's development into the leading German colocation platform.

The DIF Value Add strategy through which the investment is being made focuses on infrastructure assets with active value creation potential, consistent with CVC DIF's broader infrastructure investment approach across European markets.

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