Yotta becomes first Indian data centre startup to go public on Nasdaq

Image: Yotta

On June 24, India’s Nidar Infrastructure Limited announced it would go public through a definitive merger with special-purpose acquisition company Cartica Acquisition Corp. The transaction values Nidar at approximately $2.75 billion in pre-transaction equity and is expected to provide the combined entity with increased capital market access to fuel its growth strategy. The merger will position Hiranandani-backed Nidar as a publicly traded entity on the US-based Nasdaq exchange.

Through its Yotta data centres, Nidar provides for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance compute. Mumbai-headquartered Yotta designs, builds, and operates Tier III and IV data centres, which offer both colocation and hyperscale services and cloud and managed services.

“With our priority access to industry-leading GPUs through our partnership with the world’s leader in high-performance compute, together with the added ability to access US capital markets, Yotta is poised to capture long-lasting demand from cloud infrastructure and AI,” said Sunil Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Nidar, in a press note.

Cartica, which currently holds a trust account with approximately $25 million as of April 4, 2024, intends to use the proceeds from the business combination to execute Nidar’s business plan and for general working capital purposes. Cartica is a blank check company formed with the purpose of entering into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganisation, or similar business combination with one or more businesses.

According to the investor presentation, Yotta’s revenue increased from $22 million in FY23 to an estimated $49.2 million in FY24. Its net loss dropped from $53.2 million in FY23 to $52.8 million in FY24. The company estimates that its revenue will rise to $156 million in FY25, whereas its net loss will go up to $113.4 million. A capital expenditure of billions of dollars is projected during the financial year.

The five-year-old startup was recently in the limelight after it became the first Indian company to acquire AI chips from Nvidia in March. Yotta placed an order for 16,000 H100 chips, including the newly announced Blackwell AI-training GPU, in September 2023. The first batch of 4,000 chips arrived in March, comprising Nvidia H100 Tensor Core GPUs. The entire lot is contracted to customers.

Yotta’s global customer ratio is almost 70 percent, and India makes up for the remaining 30 percent. This ratio, however, is likely to change significantly in the next 12 months because the Indian ecosystem will grow much faster, Gupta told Forbes India recently. He has also placed an additional order for 8,000 chips of the latest version of Blackwell AI chips.

Also Watch: The inner workings of Asia's largest data centre, in Navi Mumbai

Yotta will be spending $1 billion on 16,000 chips over a period of three years. The majority will go into capex, power, and running costs because accommodating these chips will require a lot of reengineering, including specialised storage equipment and cabling.

SPACs have gained momentum in the past few years. Like in 2020, SPAC IPOs raised more capital than traditional IPOs for the first time. SPACs are publicly traded investment vehicles that raise funds via an initial public offering (IPO) in order to complete a targeted acquisition. It provides private companies with a unique way to access the public markets while offering investors a way to co-invest side-by-side with best-in-class sponsors.

In 2021, renewable energy producer ReNew Power took the SPAC route to list on the Nasdaq. The $8 billion transaction became the first major overseas listing of an Indian company. In January, Bengaluru-based car rental company Zoomcar went public after completing a previously announced business combination with Innovative International Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company based in the Cayman Islands.