Wiocc Group has signed an agreement with the Africa Finance Corporation and Saudi Arabia’s Vision International Investment Company for a combined US$300-million investment, by some distance the largest capital raise in the company’s history.
The shareholder subscription agreement was signed on Tuesday at the Leap technology exhibition in Riyadh, which runs from 31 August to 3 September. Wiocc said the money – R4.8-billion at the exchange rate at the time of publication – will fund data centre deployment and consolidation, expansion of its open-access terrestrial fibre footprint and investment in new subsea cable assets.
The size of the deal is what makes it notable. Wiocc raised $200-million in its 2022 round, in which African Capital Alliance took an equity position through its Cape IV fund and the International Finance Corporation paid $30-million for a stake later reported at about 10%.
The group raised more than $400-million across three separate rounds in 2025, the last of them a $65-million sustainability-linked debt facility in December from the IFC, Proparco, the Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund and Ninety One. In May this year, the IFC added a loan of up to $20.4-million alongside up to $50-million in fresh equity.
A single $300-million cheque therefore exceeds the whole of the 2022 round and accounts for roughly three-quarters of everything Wiocc raised last year.
“Africa is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the next phase of global digital growth,” group CEO Chris Wood said in a statement. “This investment enables Wiocc to execute its long-term growth strategy by accelerating data centre deployment and consolidation, expanding the continent’s open-access terrestrial fibre footprint and investing strategically in new subsea assets.”
The South African angle
Wiocc’s major South African presence runs through Open Access Data Centres, which completed the purchase of seven NTT Data facilities on 31 December 2025 after Competition Commission approval, in a sale-and-leaseback that added more than 25MW and sites in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, East London, Gqeberha, Durban and Johannesburg. At the signing ceremony in February, group chief strategy and M&A officer Joshua Smythwood told TechCentral the digital infrastructure market was “entering a phase of consolidation”.
Tuesday’s announcement suggests Wiocc intends to keep buying. The company named data centre “consolidation” first in its list of uses for the money, ahead of fibre and subsea infrastructure.
That puts it in a market where the competition is spending heavily. Teraco, owned by Digital Realty, has close to 190MW of IT load and about $877-million of committed investment. Vantage Data Centers is building a campus at Waterfall near Midrand in a $1-billion project, and the Cavaleros Group has announced campuses of 360MW in Cape Town and 200MW north of Johannesburg.
The Africa Finance Corporation is a multilateral development financier established in 2007 with 48 member countries. It says it has invested more than $19-billion across 36 African countries.
Vision Invest is a Saudi infrastructure investment company whose portfolio has centred on power generation, water desalination and logistics. Its first direct African investment came in September 2025, when it took a shareholding in the industrial park developer Arise IIP – a deal in which the Africa Finance Corporation was also an existing shareholder.
The statement discloses no valuation, no equity stake and no split of the $300-million between the two investors. It also does not say how the new money dilutes existing holders.
Wiocc’s shareholders include Uganda Telecom, Dalkom Somalia, Djibouti Telecom, Mozambique’s TMCEL, Zantel, Botswana Fibre Networks, Onatel, TelOne and Telkom Kenya, alongside the IFC and African Capital Alliance. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
