Swedish startup evroc, backed by EQT Ventures and Norrsken VC, plans to raise and invest 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) over the next few years to start operating two “hyperscale” data centres.
The demand for data is overgrowing across Europe. Still, most cloud services are provided by a handful of American companies operating large-scale data centres or hyperscalers.
The data will remain in Europe, according to evroc, which serial entrepreneur Mattias Astrom leads. It has funded a seed round and plans to hire over 3,000 people, builds eight hyperscale data centres by 2028, and establish three software development centres.
“The lack of home-grown hyperscale cloud providers poses a serious challenge for Europe. Not only because our citizens’ data is placed under foreign ownership by companies operating under laws that conflict with European privacy legislation. It is also a real threat to our long-term competitiveness in a digital world where others are advancing much faster. Europe’s digital economy must be built on a European foundation,” says Mattias Astrom, founder and CEO, evroc.
It will use an “eco load balancer” technique to shift data processing around evroc’s data centres based on where renewable energy is most easily and affordably accessible.
“When there is sunshine in Spain, we move data processing to Spain; when there’s wind in the Netherlands, we move data processing there,” Astrom said.
Sweden has seen the emergence of various green businesses, including Northvolt, a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles, and the steel company H2 Green Steel, which uses a fossil-free process.
“The data center industry is on par with the airline industry in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Data processing will continue to grow substantially over the coming decades, causing significant emissions and damage to our climate, unless we change direction. evroc’s holistic strategy for clean energy usage, combined with the implementation of state-of-the-art energy efficiency technology, could set the standard for the entire industry,” says Tove Larsson, Partner at Norrsken VC.
Next year, Evroc plans to launch a pilot centre in Stockholm and begin looking for a place for two data centres: one in northern Europe and one in southern Europe.
