Houlihan Lokey Advises DartPoints
Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce the successful placement of committed capital for DartPoints Holding Co., LLC (DartPoints), a portfolio company of NOVA Infrastructure (NOVA), Astra Capital Management (Astra), and Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC). Alongside NOVA’s majority investment in the company, proceeds from the transaction were used to refinance the company’s existing debt, purchase the underlying real estate in certain strategic data centers, and finance capacity expansion initiatives post-closing. The transaction closed on April 24, 2025.
DartPoints provides essential IT services to both retail and wholesale customers through a distributed network of data center facilities. The company serves more than 900 enterprise customers, including major universities, hospital systems, and Fortune 500 companies, from 11 data centers in 10 markets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, and Louisiana. With the transaction, DartPoints acquired the underlying real estate in DartPoints’ Greenville, South Carolina, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Asheville, North Carolina, data centers, further transitioning to ownership of its strategic facilities.
As part of the transaction, existing sponsor Astra will retain a meaningful minority stake in the business, demonstrating continued confidence in the company’s long-term growth strategy. OIC has also joined as a lender and investment partner, providing a senior secured credit facility and participating as a minority equity investor. NOVA and OIC’s commitments to DartPoints total more than $250 million of capital.
Founded in 2018, NOVA is a value-added, middle-market infrastructure investment firm focused on North America. It seeks to make investments that pair the downside protection features of the infrastructure asset class with operationally focused, value-added upside strategies. NOVA targets investments in environmental services, transportation, energy/energy transition, and digital sectors.
Astra is a Washington, D.C.-based investment firm that invests in growth businesses in the communications and technology services sectors. It targets highly scalable companies with proven business models that have positive free cash flow and significant growth potential. Post investment, Astra works closely with managers to drive value creation.
With approximately $5 billion in assets under management, OIC invests in North America and select international markets. Its unique partnership approach—for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs—cultivates creative credit, equity, and growth capital solutions to help middle-market businesses scale and deploy sustainable infrastructure.
Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive placement agent to DartPoints, assisting the company in arranging, structuring, and negotiating the debt financing. Houlihan Lokey ran a highly competitive process that generated substantial interest across a diverse range of capital providers. Leveraging significant competitive tension, Houlihan Lokey delivered outlier results and met the client’s key objectives, including (i) recapitalizing the business, (ii) acquiring strategic data centers, and (iii) supporting capacity expansion, while achieving a highly flexible financing structure to provide incremental growth capital in the future.