Toshiba has invested $3m (£2m) in storage-as-a-service company Zadara as the pair work on new products.

The cash brings the total funding raised by the firm to $10m as it seeks to introduce new products – some in co-operation with Toshiba.

The money will be used to expand Zadara’s sales, support and engineering teams.

Founded in Israel in 2011, the company allows both businesses and service providers to buy enterprise block-and-file storage by the hour at public cloud and colocation facilities.

George Bouchaya, VP and CTO of the Institute of Strategic Storage Planning & Investment at Toshiba, said: "We see a unique and strong strategic fit between our two companies. Together we can make a significant impact that would not be possible without this strategic relationship."

Nelson Nahum, CEO and co-founder of Zadara, added: "By working closely with Toshiba we can synergistically integrate disk drive and SSD components with storage software.

"The combination means unique and compelling cloud storage solutions as well as ‘cold storage,’ or secondary storage, solutions."