In brief: KKR’s impact strategy acquires data centre cooling company

KKR’s impact strategy has acquired a liquid cooling technology for data centres that addresses the “collision course” between global digitisation and decarbonisation trends. The company, CoolIT, provides an alternative to air-cooling technologies that uses less energy and has a smaller carbon footprint, according to a statement from KKR.

As the global economy becomes increasingly digitised, the growing demand for data centres puts these assets “on a collision course with sustainability considerations”, said Kyle Matter, the North American head of KKR’s Global Impact strategy. “Liquid cooling has a critical role to play in helping to reduce the emissions footprint of our digital economy.”

The company will be enrolled in KKR’s employee ownership programme, which will give employees an equity stake in the company.

KKR’s second fund in this strategy launched in 2021 and had raised $2.1 billion across the fund and parallel vehicles by April this year, according to an SEC filing. KKR did not disclose which fund in its Global Impact strategy the CoolIT investment came from.