ESDS Software Solution has raised Rs 216 crore from anchor investors ahead of its Rs 720 crore initial public offering, which opens for subscription on August 28 and closes on September 1. The company allotted 50.34 lakh shares to anchor investors at Rs 429 per share. The IPO is entirely a fresh issue of 1.68 crore shares. There is no offer-for-sale component. The price band has been fixed at Rs 408-429 per share, valuing the company at about Rs 5,028 crore at the upper end of the band.The company is expected to finalise allotment on September 2, while shares are likely to be credited to demat accounts on September 3. The stock is tentatively scheduled to list on BSE and NSE on September 4.Mutual funds take large anchor shareDomestic mutual funds received the bulk of the anchor allocation. ESDS said 41.25 lakh shares, or 82% of the anchor investor portion, were allotted to six domestic mutual funds through 13 schemes. The total allocation to these schemes stood at Rs 177 crore.Motilal Oswal received the largest allocation among anchor investors, with 10.25 lakh shares worth Rs 44 crore. Bandhan Focused Fund was allotted shares worth Rs 28 crore, while Bandhan Small Cap Fund received shares worth about Rs 20 crore.Quant Mutual Fund received shares worth about Rs 24 crore. Other anchor investors included ITI Mutual Fund schemes, JM Flexicap Fund, Samco Small Cap Fund, Bajaj General Insurance, Sanshi Fund-I, Meru Investment Fund PCC, Cognizant Capital Dynamic Opportunities Fund and CP Capital.DAM Capital Advisors and Systematix Corporate Services are the book-running lead managers to the issue, according to the anchor allocation filing. MUFG Intime India is the registrar.Cloud and data centre playIncorporated in 2005, ESDS Software Solution is an AI-enabled cloud, managed services, data centre infrastructure and software solutions provider. The company serves customers across BFSI, government and enterprise segments.Its portfolio includes Infrastructure-as-a-Service, managed services and Software-as-a-Service. The company also offers colocation, public cloud, private cloud, virtual private cloud, hybrid cloud, community cloud and GPU-as-a-Service solutions.ESDS operates five Tier-3 data centres across India, covering more than 75,000 sq ft. Its managed services business includes cloud and data centre management, cybersecurity, IT infrastructure management, network management, backup and disaster recovery, database management and DevOps services.The company also owns proprietary technology, including SWARAJ Cloud, its patented cloud autoscaling platform. The platform has been developed further into an AI-enabled cloud platform focused on data sovereignty, scalability, security, compliance and AI capabilities.The company proposes to use Rs 576 crore from the IPO proceeds for purchase and installation of cloud computing and other equipment and infrastructure for data centres. The remaining amount will be used for general corporate purposes.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)