AWS rival Wasabi acquires Curio AI to add intelligence to its unlimited cloud storage offering

Boston-based Wasabi Technologies, a data storage startup taking on the likes of AWS, GCP and other cloud vendors, today announced it has acquired machine learning platform Curio AI from GrayMeta, the known provider of metadata solutions based in California.

While the companies did not disclose the exact financial terms of the deal, Wasabi did note in a press release that the deal will help enable it to build Curio’s technology into a new class of AI-powered intelligent storage for the media and entertainment industry. 

It plans to tap the intellectual property and Curio team acquired as part of the deal to launch the new offering later this year. Notably, GrayMeta CEO Aaron Edell will also be among the staffers joining Wasabi post the acquisition. He will take up the role of senior vice president of AI and machine learning.

What does Curio AI bring to Wasabi?

Founded by Carbonite co-founders David Friend and Jeff Flowers in 2017, Wasabi offers “hot cloud storage,” a universal, one-size-fits-all cloud object storage service that enables organizations to store and instantly access an unlimited amount of data with no complex tiers or egress or API fees.

It treats all the data equally and makes it readily accessible, regardless of whether it is classified as hot (frequently accessed) or cold (infrequently accessed).

Since its launch, the company has roped in more than 40,000 enterprise customers and 13,000 partners, with as many as 13 storage regions located across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. However, there’s always room for improvement, which is exactly where Curio AI comes in.

With the acquisition of the ML platform from GrayMeta, Wasabi is moving to strengthen how it makes data accessible to its customers, particularly those in the media and entertainment industry. 

Today, studios and creators of all sizes are creating content at a breathtaking pace. More than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and streaming services are investing millions to create the next hit. At this rate, the volume of content in the archives is exploding to an unimaginable scale – creating a major roadblock in monetization activities. Teams just don’t have an efficient, non-manual way to find and use what they need.

An API-first ML platform, Curio AI bridges this gap by generating rich metadata from millions of hours’ worth of stored video and audio as well as images, scripts and documents. This enables refined and rapid searches for specific media segments. 

“A video archive without detailed metadata is like a library without a card catalog. This is where AI comes in. AI can find faces, logos, objects, and even specific voices. Without it, finding exactly the segments you are looking for requires tedious and time-consuming manual effort,” Friend said in a statement.

Intelligent storage with Curio

While Wasabi has supported integration with Curio since 2019, allowing users to connect their data with the ML platform, the acquisition is expected to result in a more native AI-powered search and discovery experience within the storage layer itself. The company is calling this intelligent storage for the media and entertainment industry.

“Like Wasabi’s standard cloud storage, our Curio AI-powered storage will be simple, fast, reliable, and inexpensive. With the acquisition.., our customers will not only be able to store data but locate and instantly retrieve exactly what they want,” the founder explained.

This will ultimately give media organizations a way to unlock value from the massive trove of content stored in their archives, whenever and wherever they want. In other words, no manual digging up of archives.

According to Edell, the intelligent offering, set to debut in spring 2024, will be the most significant advance in the storage industry since the invention of object storage. However, not many specifics have been shared just yet. Questions sent by VentureBeat remained unanswered at the time of writing.

“I look forward to working with Dave and the exceptional team he has built to write a new future for the media and entertainment industry,” he added. 

According to Markets and Markets, the global cloud storage market size is projected to grow from $78.6 billion in 2022 to $183.7 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 18.5%. This growth will be driven by the rising volume of data within enterprises and by the cost and compliance benefits offered by cloud solutions.