Wasabi Technologies Inc. today said it has raised $70 million in new equity financing at a $1.8 billion valuation as the Boston-based cloud storage provider moves aggressively into artificial intelligence infrastructure and cyber-resilient data services.

The infusion brings Wasabi’s total funding to more than $600 million and comes amid mounting demand for storage optimized for AI workloads. The company said the new capital will accelerate global expansion, product development and AI infrastructure investments.

“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,” Chief Executive David Friend said in a statement.

Oversubscribed round

Chief Financial Officer Michael Bayer told SiliconANGLE the company had set a less ambitious funding goal but increased the size in response to investor demand. “We were quite oversubscribed on the round,” he said. The valuation was determined by lead investor L2 Point Management LLC, which also led a $250 million round in fall 2022.

A new player in this latest stage is Pure Storage Inc., a maker of all-flash, software-defined data storage platforms. Wasabi is expanding beyond its original hard disk drive-based storage service into high-performance storage classes needed for AI training and inference. The investment reflects both companies’ interest in “the next generation of AI infrastructure that is intelligent by design and simple to deploy and operate,” said Krishna Gidwani, vice president of strategy and corporate development at Pure Storage.

Founded in 2017, Wasabi is known for flat-rate “hot cloud” storage priced at a single tier with no egress fees. That model has gained traction among backup, media, enterprise information technology and data-intensive customers frustrated by variable charges from hyperscale providers.

Wasabi also doesn’t charge customers to retrieve data from its storage cloud, a common hyperscaler policy that rankles many buyers. Bayer said the model continues unchanged. “We have one simple, everyday low price, which is essentially usage-based,” he said. While the company raised its base price from $5.99 to $6.99 per terabyte per month two years ago, “we’re still priced at a fraction of the hyperscalers.”

The company has been repositioning itself as a component of AI infrastructure as storage becomes a major cost factor in model training and data engineering workflows. In late 2025, it introduced a storage class based on the speedy Non-Volatile Memory Express protocol for AI and machine learning training, inference and real-time data logging. Earlier, it introduced Wasabi AiR, which uses AI to generate metadata tags.

AI influence

Bayer said AI is now strongly influencing Wasabi’s roadmap. “AI needs data like we need lunch,” he said, adding that customers increasingly retain data for future AI use cases even if they lack immediate plans. “Things are getting real in 2026. Every company is going to be an AI company.”

The company has also been focused on beefing up security, which is increasingly demanded by enterprises using sensitive training data pools. In December, it added Covert Copy, a feature that creates hidden, immutable backups that cannot be seen or altered without multi-user authorization. The capability targets ransomware and insider threats at a time when attackers are increasingly targeting backup infrastructure.

Bayer said response to Covert Copy has been strong. “Our customer base sees the value in that, and the uptake has been fantastic so far,” he said.

Wasabi said it now has more than 3 exabytes of customer data on its platform across 16 global regions. The company is profitable, but Bayer characterized its focus as growth-first, saying investors are aligned with that strategy. “We’ll get to profitability at the right point in time,” he said.

The new capital also deepens ties with L2 Point, whose Managing Partner Kerstin Dittmar is an entrepreneur as well as a venture capitalist. “Everybody brings money, but money’s money,” he said. “She’s got a unique perspective from not only being an investor, but also launching her own firm. She understands what it’s like to build a company from ground zero.”

Wasabi’s strategy going forward is defined by the nexus of storage, AI performance and cyber resilience. “All of those play into our view of how AI is affecting the storage markets and what we can do to take advantage of that,” Bayer said.

Existing investor Fidelity Management & Research Co. also participated in the funding round.

Photo: David Rawcliffe/Liverpool Football Club/Wasabi