Japanese giant conglomerate Hitachi and Israeli startup Voltaire today announced an alliance on designing InfiniBand–based solutions to improve connectivity in storage environments.

Hitachi will also be investing in Voltaire, the companies said. Although the companies did not disclose the sums involved, sources put it at $2 million according to a post-money company value of $42 million.

The investment continues a $13.2 million financing round conducted in late 2001, led by Baker Capital, a private equity firm headquartered in Manhattan, and the Israeli fund Pitango Venture Capital. Several other Israeli venture capital funds also took part.

To date the startup has raised about $22.5 million venture backing.

Voltaire, established in 1997, develops hardware- and software-based communication solutions for databases. Its solutions enable systems based on InfiniBand architecture to communicate with networks supporting TCP/IP protocol.

The company, which has 45 employees, maintains a sales and marketing center in Boston, and is headquartered in Herzliya Pituach.