PALO ALTO, CA — (Marketwired) — 02/07/17 — , a company built for network administrators to create more scalable, streamlined and agile data centers, today announced that it has closed $25 million in Series A venture financing, led by , with participation from lead seed investor Lightspeed Venture Partners and new investors AT&T and Microsoft Ventures. SnapRoute will use the funding to accelerate development of open networking software solutions to increase their reach across Fortune 500 companies.
SnapRoute also announced that Norwest Partner has joined the company–s board of directors that currently includes Lightspeed partner John Vrionis, Joe Sexton, and SnapRoute CEO and founder Jason Forrester.
Founded by top engineers from Apple, SnapRoute–s Network OS FlexSwitch open-source software runs on commodity “white box” switches and routers and is changing how companies build data centers, challenging the need for expensive, high-margin, proprietary hardware from legacy networking vendors. It is a fully programmable network stack that is modular, Linux distribution agnostic, and equipped with RESTful APIs at every level. The solution offers the network operator increased control, visibility and flexibility. It also allows for the development of custom applications from open APIs.
“SnapRoute is disrupting the multi-billion-dollar networking market by fundamentally changing how networks are built and scaled today,” said Rama Sekhar, partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “By disaggregating software from hardware, SnapRoute is offering flexibility that has historically eluded the networking industry. With this new approach, it–s no wonder entities like Facebook–s OCP are validating SnapRoute. We are excited to invest in this innovative team as they change networking as we know it.”
“As network operators who built and ran networks for some of the world–s leading brands, we understand the technology required for hyper-growth and scale and that not all companies have the luxury to build from the ground up on commodity hardware,” said Jason Forrester, SnapRoute CEO and founder. “In under a year, we–ve been able to challenge legacy players who have previously had a tight grip on the market. Why? Because our technology is more agile, flexible and affordable than any other offering. This approach has already been validated by our production customers. We are excited for the next phase of the company and to expand our offering and customer base.”
“We partnered with Jason from day one because he–s a visionary disrupting a massive market at the right time,” said John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “The entire networking industry is rapidly moving to an open, flexible model and SnapRoute is a leader in this new era.”
“SnapRoute is filling a gap in how network engineers work today by offering a highly scalable open networking stack, enabling engineers to work more efficiently and reduce enterprise costs,” said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice president, Microsoft Ventures. “This smart offering, paired with a strong technical team, sets SnapRoute up for continued market traction.”
“SnapRoute is filling a gap in how network engineers work today by offering a highly scalable open networking stack, enabling engineers to work more efficiently and reduce enterprise costs,” said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice president, Microsoft Ventures. “This smart offering, paired with a strong technical team, sets SnapRoute up for continued market traction.”
Customers have been struggling with traditional hardware and software solutions that did not enable them to build networks with the reliability and simplicity required to compete. At SnapRoute, our founding team has years of experience building and running some of the most complex enterprise networks in the world. We created SnapRoute to offer engineers, in any organization, an opportunity to build the best network possible and take control of their destiny.
Norwest Venture Partners is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that manages more than $6 billion in capital. The firm targets early to late stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors including: technology, information services, business services, financial services, consumer products/services and healthcare. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Norwest has offices in San Francisco and New York, and subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel. The firm has funded more than 600 companies since inception. For more information, please visit . Follow Norwest on Twitter .
Kate Dishaw
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