DC Investment Club — comparables and where to point it
Research for a $25K-a-year data center investment club. Compiled 11 October 2026 from web sources; fees are as each club or its press coverage states them, so confirm on the linked page before quoting.
What the comparables say. No club found charges $25K a year and also offers small deal tickets. Clubs charging $25K or more are peer networks for people worth $20M–$100M and say they do not sell deals. Clubs that do run deals charge £10K or less a year and earn their money from carry on each SPV. A $25K-a-year data center club therefore has to sell something scarce: a capped number of seats with first look at specific powered sites.
Clubs like the one you described
| Club | Fee | Who gets in | How deals work |
|---|---|---|---|
| TIGER 21 US, global groups | $34,000 / yr + $5,000 joining | $20M+ investable assets | Groups of 12–15 meet monthly and critique each other's portfolios. No solicitation allowed; it says it is not an investment club or adviser. Members share deals informally. |
| The Deal Room (Matt Haycox) UK | £10,000 / yr | Self-certified high-net-worth or sophisticated investors | Closest match to your model. Each deal is a separate SPV, £50,000 minimum, joining a deal is optional. The sponsor charges 2% a year plus 20% carry above an 8% hurdle. Not FCA-authorised; relies on investor exemptions. |
| R360 US, global | $180,000 / 3 yrs | $100M+ net worth; about 200 members | Peer network for centimillionaires. Deals happen between members but are not the product. One report gives the fee as $150,000 to join plus $36,000 a year. |
| Invest in Como Italy, real estate | Not stated | Private investors and family offices, vetted, by invitation | Pledge-fund model: no upfront commitment, members opt in deal by deal, one SPV per deal, tickets roughly €30K–€1M. The nearest European real-asset version of your structure. |
| Keiretsu Forum 50+ chapters, incl. London | $3,000–$5,500 / yr | Accredited investors; 3,000+ members | Companies pitch at monthly meetings. Members invest individually, typically $25K–$500K each. The forum takes no success fee or equity. |
| Aviation Investor Club UK | £4,700 / yr | Manual vetting, no stated threshold | A single-sector club like yours: priority deal flow and private briefings on aviation deals through a private syndicate. |
| Family Office Club US | $4,850–$5,999 first yr + $345 / month | Investors and family offices | Events and an investor network where sponsors meet capital. Deal terms are between the parties. |
| SIF Ventures | $4,000 / yr or $20,000 lifetime | Angels, accredited investors, family offices | Two to three opportunities a month; the lifetime tier gets priority allocations and founder introductions. |
| Long Angle US, 45+ countries | Free ($1,000 premier) | Roughly $5M–$100M net worth, verified | Free community that pools members into negotiated private-market allocations. Investing is optional; it says it takes no placement fees from managers. |
| Connection Capital UK | No membership fee stated | Private clients | FCA-authorised syndicator. Sources and diligences deals, clients self-select and invest in £25,000 tranches. Raised £77M from private clients in 2021. |
| CREO Syndicate Energy and sustainability | No deal fees | 200+ ultra-wealthy families, by invitation | Non-profit that shares a deal pipeline and research among family offices. Says it is not an adviser or broker and charges nothing for deals. |
| VAM Club Italy | Not disclosed | Selected family offices | A private equity firm's club: families co-invest in the deals the firm originates and manages. |
| Investor Network Private | $12,000 / $24,000 / $120,000 / yr | Accredited investors | Tier sets the minimum per deal ($10K, $25K, $100K). Shown as a pricing reference only: the page projects 30% returns and I could not verify the operator. |
Tooling: Roundtable runs the back office for European investment clubs (SPV set-up for 1% of the amount raised, with a minimum; it claims 600+ clubs).
The three models these fall into
- Peer network (TIGER 21, R360, Long Angle). The fee buys the room. Deals are incidental and the club stays out of them, which keeps it outside financial regulation. This is where the $25K+ fees sit.
- Sponsor-led deal club (Deal Room, Invest in Como, VAM Club, Connection Capital). One sponsor finds and structures every deal, members opt in through an SPV, and the sponsor earns carry. Fees are low or zero. This is what you described.
- Pitch forum (Keiretsu, Family Office Club, SIF). The club is a marketplace; members invest directly and the club takes no cut.
What this means for a $25K-a-year club
- You would be charging two and a half times the nearest sponsor-led club. The justification has to be scarcity: a hard cap on seats, and first look at sites worth €10–30M each once ready to build.
- Keep the fee as payment for research and access, and take carry on each SPV as the Deal Room does. The fee alone does not fund site work: 20 members is $500K.
- Set a real minimum per deal. The Deal Room uses £50,000; €100,000 also fits the EU private-placement exemption.
- Every club above restricts membership to qualified or self-certified investors. Yours needs the same gate and a lawyer's sign-off before taking money.
How the club can operate
Three ways to structure it
| Design | Likely legal treatment | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| The $25K is pooled and spent on securing projects | Looks like an investment fund under EU rules: pooled capital, a defined policy, investors without day-to-day control. Needs at least a registered fund manager. | Avoid |
| The $25K buys shares in a development company | A securities offering. Possible under private-placement exemptions: fewer than 150 non-qualified investors per country, or minimum tickets of €100,000. | Workable, heavier |
| The $25K is a membership fee for research and first look; each site is funded by a separate opt-in SPV | The fee is service revenue to Ampervia and gives no ownership or promised return. Only the SPVs are investments. | Recommended |
The recommended model, step by step
- Membership. $25K a year buys research, the deal pipeline and first look at each site. Seats are capped and limited to qualified investors.
- Origination. Ampervia uses the fee income to find and screen sites with existing or advanced grid connections.
- Site SPV. When a site is worth pursuing, members who want in fund a dedicated SPV with a minimum ticket of about €100,000. Joining any deal is optional.
- Ready-to-build. The SPV pays for the land option, grid work and permits until the site is ready to build.
- Exit. The site is sold to a developer or operator. Ampervia earns a development fee plus a share of the profit; SPV investors take the rest.
How it compares with the two reference clubs
| TIGER 21 | The Deal Room | This club | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the fee buys | Peer group meetings | Deal sourcing, memos, briefings | Research and first look at sites |
| Does the fee give a stake in anything? | No | No | No |
| Who brings the deals? | Members, informally | The sponsor | Ampervia |
| Does the club run the investment vehicle? | No, it stays out | Yes, one SPV per deal | Yes, one SPV per deal |
| How the club earns beyond the fee | It doesn't | 2% a year plus 20% carry above an 8% hurdle | Development fee plus share of exit |
The fee side works like TIGER 21: plain service revenue. The deal side works like The Deal Room, and that is the regulated part. It needs the qualified-investor gate, the minimum ticket and a lawyer's sign-off before any money is taken.
The numbers
- Fee income is small next to site costs. 20 members bring $500K a year and 40 bring $1M. Holding one 50 MW grid permit in Spain costs about €480K a year before land options, engineering and permitting. The fee funds origination; the SPVs fund the sites.
- The target deal is a 10–30 MW site. Ready to build, it is worth roughly €10–30M at the secondary-market benchmark of about €1M per MW. The outcome is binary: if the connection or permit fails, the site is worth close to nothing.
- Building is a different product. Construction runs about €10M per MW, and announced projects in Madrid and Milan are 27–40 MW at €350–400M. €10–30M buys only 1–3 MW built, so it fits only small urban sites, mainly in Germany.
- As equity, €10–30M could back a 3–10 MW build if lenders fund 60–70% of the cost. That leverage is an assumption, and lenders at that size will want a tenant signed first.
The money plays
| Play | What the SPV does | Where the money comes from | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Ready-to-build sale Core play, Milan and Madrid | Controls a 10–30 MW brownfield site, secures grid connection and permits, sells before construction. | Powered land is priced at about €512K per MW in tertiary markets, €978K in secondary and €2.26M in core hubs (JLL). PGIM and Polarnode both exited this way in 2026. | Binary: no connection or permit, no value. |
| 2. Staged sale | Same site work, but the buyer pays in steps instead of once. | A 2026 Spanish term sheet pays for the site, pays again when it reaches ready-to-build, and pays again as capacity is leased. Less cash up front, more of the upside kept. | Later payments depend on the buyer performing. |
| 3. Contribute the site to a joint venture | Puts the powered site into a venture with an operator in exchange for a stake. | The operator funds and builds; the SPV holds equity in an operating asset. Utilities are doing this at scale, supplying land and power while the tenant brings the equipment. | Minority position, long hold. |
| 4. Small urban build Germany | Builds a 2–10 MW facility in a constrained city and leases it. | Rental income, then sale as an income asset. Reported German yields are 4.5–5.5% for colocation and 5–6.25% for long single-tenant leases. | About €10M+ per MW to build; needs a tenant and bank debt. |
| 5. Distressed permits Spain, a thesis rather than a proven play | Buys sites or permits from holders who cannot carry them. | Spain now charges permit holders monthly and cancels permits on missed milestones, which should force weak holders to sell cheaply. | No completed deals to point to yet. |
How Ampervia earns
- Membership fees: $25K a year per seat. Recurring, and independent of any deal closing.
- Development fee: charged to each SPV for taking the site to ready-to-build. For reference, deal-by-deal sponsors in the US typically charge a closing fee of 2–5% of deal value.
- Share of the exit: a cut of SPV profit above a hurdle. The Deal Room's terms are 2% a year plus 20% above an 8% hurdle.
Rates above are market references, not Ampervia's terms; those are still to be set.
This is a working outline, not legal advice. Where Ampervia's company is registered and where members live decide which rules apply; US members add US private-placement rules.
Where to point it: Milan, Madrid and the alternatives
Milan
- Size: Milan holds 68% of Italy's installed capacity. Lombardy expects 1.5–2 GW of new capacity and €10–12 billion of investment over five years (Reuters).
- The gap you can sell into: Lombardy has about 46 GW of connection requests, but nationally only 1.88 GW has reached the advanced stage (Il Sole 24 Ore). Buyers need sites that are real, and most of the queue is not.
- Brownfield is now favoured by law: Regional Law 11/2026 cuts construction charges 10–30% on disused sites and doubles or triples them on farmland and parkland (Osborne Clarke).
- Proof the model works: Magnora secured two industrial sites near Milan of about 30 MW each, filed grid applications, and plans to sell them to a developer by 2027 (DCD). Recent builds went onto a former car-parts factory and a former research site.
- Build sizes: 27–36 MW per project at €350–360M, so construction is not a club-sized ticket.
Madrid
- Size: about 212 MW of IT capacity operating, up 21% in six months; forecasts put the market above 1 GW by 2030–2031 (Structure Research).
- Tenants are signing: Nebius leased 18 MW at one Madrid campus in July 2026.
- New connections are close to shut: the first national access tender awarded 928 MW and no data center won. Existing connections on industrial sites are the way in.
- Holding a permit now costs money: about €40,000 a month for 50 MW since March 2026, and permits lapse on missed milestones (Latham & Watkins). This will shake loose weak permit holders, which is deal flow for a club.
- Precedents: a Madrid site sold as powered land with secured power rights became a €400M, 40 MW project; a former bottling plant became a 240 MW campus plan.
- Risk: a draft decree would require 80% hourly renewable backing for new permits.
Others worth a look
| Market | Why | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| German cities, small sites | Frankfurt vacancy is 3.1%, the tightest in Europe. A new operator committed €500M to 46 MW across eight sites of 2–9.5 MW each. The only market where a club could fund an actual build. | Berlin and Frankfurt ration larger connections; only 10–15% of German grid applications are expected to succeed. |
| Rome | Second Italian hub; an industry study puts demand at 217 MW by 2031 and Digital Realty opens there in early 2027. | Thinner evidence than Milan. |
| Barcelona | Forecast to more than triple to over 270 MW by 2031. | Small base. |
| Poland (Warsaw) | About 200 MW today, forecast 500 MW by 2030; stabilised yields of 6.5–9% versus 4.5–6.25% in Germany. | Fewer buyers at exit. |
| Nordics | Took 66% of the 420 MW of AI capacity signed in Europe in the first half of 2026. | Deals of 100 MW and up; Denmark has paused new connections. |
| Aragón | €60 billion pipeline led by Amazon and Microsoft. | Local distribution grid is 99.9% saturated; a hyperscaler market, not a club market. |
Recommendation. Lead with Milan, then Madrid: brownfield sites of 10–30 MW with an existing or advanced grid connection, taken to ready-to-build and sold. Offer small German urban sites as the second product for members who want to own an operating asset.
Figures come from broker reports, grid operators, law-firm briefings and trade press as linked. The only public ready-to-build price in Spain is a single non-binding offer of €1M per MW, so exit values are indicative.