€20M Edge Data Center Fund Targets Spain and Portugal

A €20 million ($22.3 million) venture capital fund will finance the construction of Edge data centers across Spain and Portugal, according to a report by El Español carried by DatacenterDynamics.

The vehicle, named Adequita Centros de Datos Edge Iberia FCRE, is being set up by three partners: Actyus, the alternative investment arm of Andbank España; Adequita Capital; and Nethits Telecom. Spain will be the primary market, with Portugal as a secondary one. The report did not disclose details of any planned investments.

The launch is still pending authorization from the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), Spain's markets watchdog.

Who does what in the deal?

The structure splits cleanly along each partner's core competency. Actyus manages the fund. Andbank handles distribution, placing it with high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. Adequita Capital joins as a founding financial partner and developer. Nethits contributes its expertise in telecommunications, fiber optics and technology systems integration.

For wealth managers and institutional allocators, that's the practical takeaway: a closed-end fund product in a niche infrastructure class, distributed through an established private banking channel, with telecom know-how embedded rather than bolted on.

The partners aren't strangers, either. Nethits, founded in 2006 and based in Valencia, supplies network, telephony, IPTV and Wi-Fi solutions, with multiple services targeting the hotel industry. In 2023, Nethits and Adequita Capital formed NXN, a joint-venture data center firm that is currently developing a facility in Valencia. The new fund gives that partnership a dedicated financing vehicle to scale.

What does this change for Iberian data center investors?

It adds a locally managed, mid-sized pool of capital to a market increasingly defined by hyperscale projects. €20 million won't compete with the billion-euro campuses of global operators, but edge facilities are smaller by design: they push computing capacity closer to end users, and they're cheaper to build.

The timing is the real story. Spain is finalizing a royal decree that proposes new efficiency and renewable energy supply requirements for larger data centers. The most aggressive measure would require operators to cover 80 percent of electricity consumption with new renewable generation, verified with hourly certification.

That requirement has drawn pushback. The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has suggested relaxing it to avoid potential inefficiencies, while industry representatives have warned about the impact it could have on the viability of some projects. The regulation is still working through the legislative process, so its final terms may change.

The regulatory overhang cuts both ways

For the fund's sponsors, the pending decree is a calculated bet. Stricter energy rules could raise costs and slow larger developments, potentially pushing demand toward smaller, nimbler edge builds that the decree's thresholds may not touch. On the other hand, if the final rules extend to mid-sized facilities, the fund's projects could face the same hourly renewable certification burden that has the industry worried.

CNMV approval is the immediate gate. Until the regulator signs off, the fund exists on paper only, and the partners have shared no target returns, deal pipeline or timeline for first investments.

If authorization comes through, expect Andbank's distribution network to determine how quickly the €20 million gets deployed — and watch the final text of the royal decree to see how much of it lands on edge-scale projects rather than the hyperscalers it was written for.