Wasabi Technologies announced it
has achieved unicorn status following $250 million in new funding. Wasabi
raised $125 million in Series D equity led by L2
Point Management with participation from Cedar Pine; an affiliate of Cerberus Capital
Management; and returning investors including Fidelity Management &
Research Company and Forestay Capital, bringing the company’s valuation to over $1.1 billion.
Wasabi also expanded its existing debt facility with MGG Investment Group to
$125 million. Barclays acted as sole placement agent on the transaction.
Wasabi provides fast, affordable, and highly reliable cloud data storage
for businesses all over the world at 1/5th
the cost of large hyperscale providers or on-premises storage, with no charges
for egress or API requests and no complex tiering. The company’s
revenues more than doubled from 2020-2021, and Wasabi now has more than 40,000
customers in over 100 countries, 13,000 partners, 250+ global employees and 13
storage regions
across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The
new equity will drive expansion into additional vertical markets and
geographies, enhance Wasabi’s channel partnerships, and scale the company’s
go-to-market team and global brand strategies. Meanwhile, the debt will be used
to finance capital equipment and infrastructure in Wasabi’s storage regions
around the world, and to invest in Wasabi’s technology capabilities to lay the
groundwork for a new generation of cloud storage architecture.
“Closing a large up round in this environment speaks to the spectacular growth
of Wasabi, the magnitude of the cloud storage opportunity, and our leadership
as the industry’s largest pure-play cloud storage vendor. At Wasabi, we
focus on just one thing: cloud storage. We do it better than anyone else in the
industry. Because of this singular focus, our team has achieved best-in-class
performance and security at the lowest prices in the industry,” said David
Friend, co-founder and CEO of Wasabi Technologies.
Kerstin Dittmar, Managing Partner of lead investor L2 Point, will join Wasabi’s
Board of Directors. “Wasabi provides a game-changing product that offers
customers a simpler, faster, and significantly more economical solution to
their cloud data storage needs. We believe this capital raise will allow Wasabi
to continue to expand its offering across additional services and geographies
to meet their global customers’ needs,” said Dittmar.
“We are proud to partner with Wasabi to provide innovative solutions in
cloud storage and security,” added Sam Barnett, PhD, Executive Chairman of
Cedar Pine. “The importance of Wasabi’s technology is increasing in every
industry.”
Kevin Griffin, CEO of MGG Investment Group, also
commented, “We seek to partner with best in class entrepreneurs and companies
and are excited to continue supporting Wasabi Technologies and their global
expansion.”
In addition to the industry-leading performance of
Wasabi hot cloud storage, the company partners
with over 350 technology companies, including most of the world’s leading
backup, disaster recovery, and surveillance companies. Wasabi is used to store
data across a wide range of industries, including professional sports, energy
and natural resources, finance, surveillance, education, manufacturing,
consumer technology, healthcare, scientific research, and media and
entertainment.
“As our data needs continue to
evolve, from player analytics, IoT, digital assets and even security, this
presents an enormous learning opportunity for the organization,” said Brian
Shield, senior vice president and CTO of the Boston Red Sox. “Wasabi provides a
cost-effective cloud-based solution that enables us to retrieve content quickly
and improve the level of video analysis and production we do here at the Red
Sox.”
