Wasabi Technologies has raised US$70 million in new equity funding, lifting the cloud storage provider’s valuation to US$1.8 billion, as it accelerates its push into AI-first data infrastructure.
The funding round was led by L2 Point Management with participation from Pure Storage and existing investors, bringing Wasabi’s total funding to more than US$600 million. The company said the capital will be used to expand its AI infrastructure capabilities, grow its global footprint and enhance its storage portfolio to support data-intensive enterprise and AI workloads.
The raise comes as governments and enterprises, including in Australia, place greater emphasis on secure, scalable and cost-predictable cloud infrastructure to support responsible AI adoption and broader digital transformation. Wasabi positions itself as an alternative to hyperscale cloud providers, offering flat-rate pricing with no egress or API fees, a model designed to address cost transparency concerns for CIOs managing fast-growing data volumes.
Wasabi co-founder and CEO David Friend said demand is being driven by AI workloads such as generative AI, autonomous systems and real-time analytics, where unpredictable storage costs and performance bottlenecks can undermine business outcomes.
Since launching its Hot Cloud Storage platform in 2017, Wasabi has expanded its portfolio with AI-focused services including Wasabi AiR, which adds AI-powered metadata tagging, and Wasabi Fire, an NVMe-based storage class aimed at compute-intensive AI and machine learning training, inference and data pipelines. The company has also invested heavily in security, including multi-user authorisation and its ransomware-resistant “Covert Copy” capability, designed to protect data even in the event of a breach.
For Australian organisations, Wasabi already supports a mix of global and local customers, including Liverpool FC, Tennis Australia and Charles Darwin University, across sectors such as education, media, cyber resilience and enterprise IT. The company said its approach aligns with growing demand for AI-ready infrastructure that balances performance, security and cost control.
L2 Point Managing Partner and CIO Kerstin Dittmar said storage is a critical but often overlooked foundation of AI adoption, noting that high-performance, affordable storage is essential to making AI tools viable at scale. Pure Storage said its participation reflects shared customer demand for simpler, scalable AI data environments without hidden costs.
Wasabi now manages more than three exabytes of data across 16 global regions and continues to expand partnerships across backup, cyber resilience, media and enterprise technology ecosystems.
