Israeli company DriveNets, a developer of cloud-native networking solutions for telecommunications firms, secured $262 million in Series C funding, according to a company announcement Wednesday.
The round was led by D2 Investments, with the participation of existing investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Pitango, D1 Capital Partners, Atreides Management and Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services. DriveNets last raised $208 million in January 2021 at a valuation of over $1 billion.
The Ra’anana-based company was founded in late 2015 by Ido Susan, the co-founder of mobile network management firm Intucell, acquired by Cisco in 2013 for $475 million, and Hillel Kobrinsky, founder of Interwise, acquired by AT&T for $121 million in 2007.
DriveNets emerged from stealth mode in 2019 and currently works with Communications Service Providers (CSP) — including AT&T — and cloud infrastructure services worldwide.
The company offers “a radical new way to build networks” to meet customer demand while simplifying operations, performance and costs. Its flagship product, Network Cloud, is a cloud-native software that turns the physical network into a shared infrastructure to support multiple services.
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The company said it will use the sizeable new investment to develop additional technology, pursue new business opportunities, and expand the company’s global operations and support teams to support growing customer demand.
The DriveNets team. (DriveNets)
“DriveNets’ approach of building networks like cloud allows telecom providers to take advantage of technological efficiencies available to cloud hyperscalers, such as cloud-native software design and optimal utilization of shared resources across multiple services,” Susan, who serves as DriveNets CEO, said in a statement.
Adam Fisher, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, said the company “has demonstrated its ability to move the networking industry forward and has gained the trust of tier-1 operators.”
Aaron Mankovski, a managing partner at Pitango, said the fresh funds “will allow DriveNets to expand its footprint in the market and develop additional offerings.”
The funding news is part of a series of significant investment rounds for Israeli companies announced this week, including $170 million for property management platform Guesty, $150 million for human resources management platform HiBob and $100 million for cloud storage processing company Pliops.
