Mumbai: Neysa, an Indian artificial intelligence (AI) cloud platform, is in the process of raising a $200 million tranche led by Blackstone and other existing investors, as a part of its larger $1.2 billion round, two people familiar with the matter said.
Blackstone is investing close to $150 million, while the remaining is expected to come from other investors including OTPP, TVS Capital, Nexus Venture Partners and 360 ONE Asset, the people said. The valuation details were not known immediately.
Blackstone, Neysa and OTPP declined to comment, while the others did not respond to Mint’s emails till the time of publishing.
The funds are expected to provide material impetus to Neysa’s planned scale-up and deployment of over 20,000 graphics processing units () in India, as demand for AI-led services heats up.
The funding comes seven months after Neysa announced a $1.2 billion fundraising round in February, combining debt and equity to fund its expansion plans. Blackstone is the majority shareholder in Neysa following the fundraising.
About $600 million was equity capital, with an additional $600 million in debt financing led by Blackstone. Other equity investors in this transaction include Teachers’ Venture Growth, TVS Capital, 360 ONE Assets and Nexus Ventures.
“The company has procured large contracts and scaled significantly since the first infusion in February,” one of the people close to the development said.
Milestone-based financing is increasingly becoming common in AI and data centres industry, where investors are seeking more evidence of execution while capitalizing on the demand for AI-led services.
Neysa’s bet
Founded in 2023 by Sharad Sanghi, who also serves as chief executive officer (CEO), Neysa designs and develops AI systems deployed and operated in India. The company provides purpose‑built and cost-effective GPU‑based AI infrastructure that enables enterprises and institutions to train, fine‑tune and deploy AI workloads. Its customers span industries such as financial services, technology, healthcare, and public services.
While specific details on the company’s performance were unavailable, Sanghi told Mint in February that he expected the company to more than triple its revenues next year based on demand and growth across sectors.
Its peer, CtrlS Datacenters Pvt. Ltd has also seen milestone-based financing. In June, it raised ₹7,000 crore, at a $4.8 billion ( ₹45,000 crore) valuation. Of the total, ₹4,000 crore would be infused in the entity, and ₹3,000 crore would go into a new joint venture, the company said.
The valuation reflects almost double the company’s internal valuation of $2.6 billion in November last year, but the transaction came with a pre-condition. Ctrl S will have to meet a series of execution milestones—including retaining Amazon as a customer at one project and securing power and customers for another—or risk handing Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) a larger stake in the company, Mint reported in July.
Private equity funds like EQT have also said they are making a calibrated move into the AI and data centre segments. “We are taking that approach through our portfolio companies. Some of them are acquiring smaller, digital-native companies to add new capabilities and accelerate their AI adoption,” EQT said in a media-round table last month.
Broadly, global cloud service providers are looking to set up inference clusters in India, especially after the Union budget announced a tax holiday. The government proposed that a foreign company providing cloud services globally, while utilising data centre services located in India, would be eligible for a tax holiday extending up to 2047.
The Indian data centre market is witnessing rapid capacity expansion, driven by strong digital demand tailwinds and a surge in infrastructure investments. Its competitiveness is anchored in structural cost advantages and strengthening infrastructure, while demand continues to accelerate on the back of multiple converging digital and regulatory drivers, KPMG said in a report.
The consultancy firm estimates a $90 billion opportunity to emerge by FY35 across the end-to-end data centre value chain, extending well beyond core capacity buildouts into adjacent infrastructure and services. Building on these growth prospects, several fundraises have concluded in this segment since the beginning of this year.
These include Bharti Airtel Ltd’s data centre platform alongside Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle, and Anchorage Capital, Hiranandani group’s from non-institutional investors and IFC’s $71 million investment in Sify Infinit Spaces.