Arctic Blockchain Ltd. has raised $10,000,000 in private financing and subsequently closed the acquisition of Hydro66 UK Limited.
Founded in 2014 by David Rowe, Hydro66 is an ultra-efficient, hydro powered high performance compute colocation data center located in Boden, Northern Sweden. Hydro66 offers enterprise co-location services as well as mining cryptocurrency on its own account and for customers, continuously since inception. Arctic Blockchain is a Canadian company formed by Mike Hudson, Richard Patricio, and Phil Williams to identify and invest in cryptocurrency mining assets.
The combined business will continue under the leadership of Hydro66’s current management team. Members of the Arctic team will augment the board of directors and a public listing on CSE is planned to be completed in early Q2 2018.
The combination of Arctic Blockchain and Hydro66 creates a well-funded, growth-oriented datacenter business with strong technical and financial leadership. Hydro66 is well positioned to capitalize on future growth in high power computing with a focus on both blockchain technologies and cryptocurrency mining.
The Hydro66 flagship facility has installed operating capacity of 4MW with an additional 36MW of capacity under construction. Beyond the 40MW of power secured for the current expansion, Hydro66 has also reserved an additional 50MW of power capacity for future expansion. The facility is 100% environmentally friendly using hydro-power and an innovative building and cooling system was designed to allow for free air cooling 365 days per year. The build out to the full 40MW capacity will be completed by Q1 2019.
The go-forward business plan will be to continue the aggressive build-out to 40MW capacity and focus on filling the datacenter halls with a balance of enterprise and wholesale cryptocurrency customers, while reserving capacity for self-mining of cryptocurrency when pricing, difficulty and equipment availability align to provide a favorable return of capital. In the last few several weeks, Hydro66 has already taken delivery of its first shipment of new GPU crypto-mining equipment, as part of an initial investment in 1MW of crypto mining rigs over the next months.
David Rowe, Chairman of Hydro66 states: “It is good to strengthen our capital base as we build out our award-winning facility. The additional capital not only gives us further confidence in our plans but allows us to be opportunistic in our thinking. The path towards a public listing will provide access to larger pools of capital as we expand our ambitions and footprint.”
Anne Graf, CEO of Hydro66 states: “I am very pleased to welcome Arctic Blockchain in Canada to our project. Richard Patricio and his colleagues have demonstrated great success in traditional mining over many years, both globally and in the Nordic countries. Their experience in capital deployment and understanding of crypto mining will be extremely valuable as we expand our current site and develop further our plans in co-location and wholesale crypto as well as self-mining opportunities.”
Richard Patricio, CEO of Arctic Blockchain, states: “After assessing several opportunities to enter the crypto mining space we identified that businesses which own and control physical assets, land, buildings and power, as well as having deep technical experience, will be best suited to profit in this evolving market place. Hydro66 stands apart from the field in this regard and the asset base we have acquired and are aiding to build will have real value, in the future for cryptocurrency, the blockchain and high-performance computing. We look forward to being part of this exciting new chapter with David and Anne and the rest of the Hydro66 team.”
Hydro66