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Wasabi has closed a second late-stage funding event to strengthen its AI data cloud storage infrastructure.
It provides cloud storage services that are less expensive than hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, and Google. Wasabi started out by focusing exclusively on S3-compliant object storage services, with no egress fees. This was extended to file (NAS), video surveillance and video media storage offers. It expanded further by offering Wasabi Fire fast-access object storage for AI use in November last year, closely following a $32.5 million funding round, the first tranche of a two-part E round. At the same time the company opened a new storage region in San Jose, California, colocated within IBM’s infrastructure, for Silicon Valley AI startups. Now it has closed the second part of this $70 million E round, bringing total funding to more than $600 million.
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CEO and co-founder David Friend said: “We’re ushering in the next generation of cloud storage, powering data-intensive workloads like generative AI and autonomous systems. This funding underscores Wasabi’s strong market position and continued growth as enterprises and AI developers alike seek a better, more predictable alternative to the hyperscalers.”
The latest round values Wasabi at $1.8 billion and was led by L2 Point Management, with participation from Pure Storage and existing investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company. We’re told: “Pure Storage’s investment deepens the alliance between two storage innovators, aligning their strengths to meet surging demand across these workloads.”
Pure has licensed the use of its all-flash storage drive technology to Meta and is pursuing other hyperscaler opportunities. Krishna Gidwani, VP, Strategy and Corporate Development at Pure, said: “AI is changing the way enterprises manage and store data. Wasabi is demonstrating strong execution in delivering scalable, low-cost cloud storage built for AI-ready data environments without added complexity or unpredictable costs. Our investment reflects a shared focus on building the next generation of AI infrastructure that is intelligent by design and simple to deploy and operate.”
It’s possible Wasabi is using Pure Storage DirectFlash Module (DFM) technology to provide fast-access AI data cloud storage services.
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Wasabi has had a fairly complicated funding history since being founded in 2015, with a mix of venture capital rounds, often multi-part, accompanied by debt finance, as our records show:
As we can see from the chart, 2022 was a massive funding year. It raised $250 million to grow its business by adding more regional coverage, including Italy in 2024. Wasabi added AI-powered metadata generation for video data (AiR) by acquiring Curio in January 2024. Wasabi has accumulated more than 100,000 customers, has 16 regions, and more than 3 EB of data under management. It says its momentum reflects accelerating AI-driven data growth.
Kerstin Dittmar, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of L2 Point, said: “Storage may not receive the same attention as GPUs, but without it, the use of AI tools and technology grinds to a halt. Wasabi’s innovative solutions help to make storage both high-performance and affordable, and we look forward to supporting the company’s next stage of growth.”
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Cloud storage service competitor Backblaze has passed the 5 EB of data under management level and has more than 500,000 customers.
