I Squared Capital-backed Exa Infrastructure has completed its acquisition of subsea cable operator Aqua Comms from Digital 9 Infrastructure.

The deal was finalized on December 31, 2025, following an agreement signed between the two companies last January.

Aqua Comms was previously backed by UK infrastructure fund Digital 9 Infrastructure, which is currently in the process of winding down and selling off its assets. D9 acquired Aqua in 2021.

Although the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by Exa, D9 previously disclosed the net proceeds of the transaction to be $48 million, noting the final amount to be “extremely disappointing.”

The acquisition expands Exa Infrastructure’s footprint, which currently sits at more than 160,000km of digital infrastructure across 37 countries, including seven Transatlantic routes and 22 cable landing stations across North America and Europe.

Ireland-based Aqua Comms operates submarine cable systems and supplies fiber pairs, spectrum, and wholesale network capacity to the global content, cloud, carrier & enterprise markets.

The company owns and operates America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1), and CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) and is part of a consortium that owns/operates the Amitié cable system (AEC-3).

Exa notes that the acquisition of Aqua Comms’ network provides “greater route diversity and more critical links between the US, Ireland, and mainland Europe.”

“With the acquisition now complete, EXA Infrastructure has significantly enhanced our Transatlantic and European connectivity offerings. Customers will benefit from unrivalled route diversity enhanced resiliency across a unified, meshed subsea and terrestrial network,” said Jim Fagan, chief executive officer, EXA Infrastructure.