A liquid cooling startup spearheaded by former CoolIT alumnus Steve Walton has merged with the UK’s Datalec Precision Installations to create a multifaceted data centre services platform.
The news: The merger was announced on Oct. 14, with the new entity operating under the 3C Datalec moniker. The new company will pair 3C’s liquid-cooling data centre infrastructure services with Datalec’s engineering capabilities, allowing the company to design, build, and operate data centre infrastructure. The financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.
From the source: “Liquid cooling is no longer optional,” Walton, who will take the role of CEO at 3C Datalec, said in a statement. “At CoolIT, we spent years preparing for this moment and became a global leader in liquid cooling. The hard part now is making cooling, power, construction, and operations work as one system.”
The context: In March, Walton’s former company, the Calgary-based CoolIT Systems, sold to Minnesota’s Ecolab for $4.75 billion USD ($6.5 billion CAD). Walton left the company in 2024, but his tenure as CEO helped set the stage for the deal, which became one of the largest acquisitions in Alberta’s tech ecosystem to date and underscored the growing value of data-centre-related infrastructure. Walton later founded 3C, which helps data centres move away from air cooling systems to closed-loop, liquid cooling systems.
Final thought: With the backing of venture capital firms like Longbow Capital, S2G Investments, Apogem Capital, and QIC, 3C Datalec is forecasting annual revenue of $400 million USD and has active projects in 16 countries. Over the next 12 months, the company said it is planning to hire 200 engineers ahead of opening new facilities in Calgary, Austin, and Warsaw. With demand for compute showing no signs of slowing, the merger seems to be the logical next step for Walton’s latest company, as 3C Datalec positions itself as a one-stop shop poised to capitalize on the complete data centre boom value chain.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy of Unsplash. Photo by Kyler Nixon.