An investment fund backed by a number of state-owned banks and focused on Eastern Europe has more than €1 billion ($1.9 billion) to spend in the region, including on digital infrastructure.

The Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund (3SIIF) was established in 2019 and is dedicated to investing in critical infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It specifically targets the Three Seas Region and the 12* countries which border the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas. So far it has made investments in renewable energy, digital infrastructure, and railways.

Key funders include Poland’s state development bank BGK, Romania’s export-import bank EximBank, Latvia’s development bank Altum, the Estonian Ministry of Finance, and Slovakia’s state-owned SID Banka. Amber Infrastructure Group is the investment is exclusive Investment Adviser to the fund, which is aiming to eventually raise €3-5 billion ($3.5-5.9 billion) to invest across the region.

“Our investment advisor has been looking for projects,” Beata Daszyńska-Muzyczka, president of BGK, said this week. “Currently, we're analyzing 180 projects that the fund can carry out.”

“The Three Seas Initiative and the Three Seas Fund are proof that regional cooperation is possible, and that by combining our forces we can create interesting investments and spur business development, trade, and tourism,” she added.

So far the fund has made three investments; Polish locomotive leasing company Cargounit, Austrian energy company Enery, and Estonia's Greenergy Data Centers.

In December 2020 3SIIF announced it had invested in Estonian data center firm Greenergy Data Centers OÜ to take a controlling interest in the company. At the same time as the funding announcement, Greenergy announced it had acquired MCF Group Estonia OÜ; a company developing a large data center outside Tallinn. The 14,500 sqm (156,000 sq ft), 31.5MW facility is due to come online this year, with the company reportedly planning more across the CEE region in the future.

Enery owns a portfolio of 85MW of solar assets in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, with more than 2GW in development across the CEE region including Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, and Austria.

*Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.