Helios Investment Partners is intensifying its focus on North African digital infrastructure, announcing the launch of a new platform in Morocco shortly after securing an initial agreement to acquire a significant data centre asset in Egypt.
The firm, which specialises exclusively in African markets, has partnered with Fipar-Holding, a subsidiary of Morocco’s state-owned CDG Invest, to establish 3MDC. This new entity acts as a consolidation of three existing Moroccan technology companies: Maroc Datacenter, a carrier-neutral Tier III data center; Munisys, a systems integrator; and Medasys, a firm specialising in cybersecurity and digital services.
The strategic move highlights a broader trend of private investment flowing into African digital sovereignty and infrastructure resilience, sectors that have faced increased scrutiny following recent systemic failures across the continent. 3MDC is envisioned as a fully integrated hybrid-cloud platform aimed at serving both enterprise clients and public sector entities in Morocco and Southern Europe.
The ownership structure of 3MDC reflects a significant commitment to local adoption backed by international investors. Helios IV, the firm’s investment fund, will hold 44%, Fipar-Holding will own 40%, and the founders and management teams of the three merged companies will retain the remaining 16%. Although specific financial terms of the Moroccan merger were not disclosed, the strategic goal is clear: to combine physical infrastructure with cloud, security, and integration services, creating an end-to-end “sovereign” digital solution.
Babatunde Soyoye, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Helios, emphasised the significance of the platform, stating that the combination of the three companies creates a unique Moroccan digital infrastructure with the scale and expertise necessary to enable secure, sovereign, and sustainable growth. This initiative follows Helios’s recent aggressive moves into the Egyptian market, where it is in the process of acquiring a majority stake in Telecom Egypt’s data centre subsidiary. The Egyptian deal is valued at up to $260 million, contingent on performance-based earn-outs, and follows a significant incident at Ramses Central — a key telecommunications hub — that exposed vulnerabilities in Egypt’s digital infrastructure and caused widespread disruptions.
The Egyptian assets include a 2.5 MW data centre launched in 2021 that reached full capacity within a year, alongside a second phase under development with a 4.6 MW capacity. The expansion into both Morocco and Egypt illustrates Helios’s strategic focus on building resilient, sovereign digital ecosystems across North Africa, emphasising the importance of hosting critical data within national borders rather than relying on foreign hyperscalers.
Fipar-Holding, the Moroccan investment arm of the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion (CDG), aims to bolster Morocco’s technological foundations and support a resilient and inclusive digital economy. Khalid Ziane, General Manager of Fipar, highlighted that the partnership seeks to strengthen the country’s digital ecosystem and prevent capital flight to international cloud providers by integrating physical data hosting with local cloud and security services.
Established in 2004, Helios Investment Partners is the largest Africa-focused private equity firm, managing funds that invest across startups and established corporations. It is notably the first mainstream private equity firm in Africa to attain B Corp certification. Fipar-Holding is a proactive investor focused on large-scale Moroccan development projects, representing the investment arm of the Moroccan government’s strategic initiatives.
The three companies forming 3MDC include Maroc Datacenter, which provides colocation and cloud services and holds Tier III certification; Munisys, a 30-year-old systems integrator with a staff of 300 specialising in hybrid infrastructure; and Medasys, which offers IT architecture and systems integration services primarily for the public sector.
The deal is still subject to standard closing conditions. If finalised, 3MDC aims to position itself as a primary competitor to international providers in the Francophone African data market, while Helios continues due diligence on its Egyptian assets. The move underscores a broader push for digital sovereignty and infrastructure independence across North Africa as the region seeks resilient and secure digital ecosystems for the future.
