NOVA Infrastructure, a middle-market infrastructure investment firm, announced that it has completed a majority investment in DartPoints, a leading provider of secure and high-performance enterprise data center solutions. NOVA’s investment includes a significant growth capital component designed to scale DartPoints’ platform and expand its footprint through targeted investments in capacity expansion and strategic M&A to meet market demand.
DartPoints offers essential IT services to retail and wholesale customers through a distributed network of data center facilities. And the company serves over 900 enterprise customers, including major universities, hospital systems and Fortune 500 companies, from 11 data centers in 10 markets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana and Louisiana. With the deal, DartPoints acquired the underlying real estate in DartPoints’ Greenville, SC; Baton Rouge, LA; and Asheville, NC data centers, further transitioning to ownership of its strategic facilities.
As part of the deal, existing sponsor Astra Capital Management will retain a meaningful minority stake in the business, demonstrating continued confidence in the company’s long-term growth strategy. And Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC) also joined as a lender and investment partner, providing a senior secured credit facility and participating as a minority equity investor. NOVA and OIC’s commitments to DartPoints total over $250 million of capital.
Advisors: Bank Street Group served as exclusive M&A advisor, Houlihan Lokey advised on the debt financing, and Sheppard Mullin and Debevoise & Plimpton served as legal counsel to DartPoints. And Winston & Strawn served as legal counsel for NOVA and Vinson & Elkins served as legal counsel for OIC.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re excited to partner with a best-in-class data center management team and platform serving a diverse and growing base of enterprise customers. We look forward to growing the business and capitalizing on the significant opportunity in DartPoints’ target markets, which benefit from shifting demand trends and the decentralization of digital workloads.”
Chris Beall, Managing Partner at NOVA
“We’re entering a new phase of growth centered on infrastructure ownership, operational control and strategic market expansion. We’ve always believed that Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets deserve the same digital capabilities as Tier 1 metros. This transaction positions us to bring scalable, secure infrastructure closer to the demand wherever it’s needed, especially as data-intensive workloads take hold across industries. We are thrilled to work with NOVA to efficiently and effectively grow our business.”
Scott Willis, CEO of DartPoints
“Astra is proud to have partnered with and to continue supporting DartPoints as it builds the leading provider of high-performance data centers outside of Tier 1 markets. The company is uniquely positioned to meet the industry’s distributed data center needs.”
Brian Kirschbaum, Partner at Astra Capital Management
