ZeroTier, a virtual networking company simplifying secure connectivity for devices worldwide, has secured $13.5 million in Series A funding. The funding was led by Battery Ventures, a global, technology-focused investment firm, with participation from Bonfire Ventures, Anorak Ventures, Grand Enterprises B.V., Airbridge Equity Partners, First In Ventures, and 7percent Ventures. ZeroTier supports over three million connected devices and 600,000 network administrators across more than 230 countries and territories worldwide.
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“ZeroTier’s innovative approach to decentralized networking is helping many customers better and more easily connect Internet-enabled devices, people and data centers—and fueling these businesses to perform more efficiently”
In addition to its financing, ZeroTier has appointed tech startup founder and investor Andrew Gault as CEO. A former CTO and programmer with deep expertise in edge devices and networking, Gault co-founded video game streaming platform Gaikai which sold to Sony for $380M in 2012, and was the first investor in Oculus VR which sold to Meta for $2B in 2014. As a founding partner of 7percent Ventures, Gault has invested in over 100 companies including Universal Quantum, Vaire Computing and Gensyn AI. He personally holds 31 patents.
“With Internet-connected devices outnumbering humans by a factor of three, the need for secure connectivity between devices is skyrocketing. Unfortunately, there are very few scalable, flexible and vendor-agnostic options available to enterprises today,” said Andrew Gault, CEO, ZeroTier. “ZeroTier lives at the crux of this market need, creating global private networks that easily connect devices directly to each other, no matter where they are in the world.”
ZeroTier’s financing will be used to fund ongoing innovation and product development, as well as the geographic expansion of operations to support the company’s strong global growth trajectory. For example, ZeroTier recently provided Metropolis, a company offering checkout-free parking payments, with a system that created secure peer-to-peer connections between devices, as well as a centralized monitoring platform. Metropolis’ network includes thousands of devices and is growing exponentially. The Metropolis team will have 40,000 network connected devices within the year – and in two years as many as 100,000.
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“ZeroTier’s innovative approach to decentralized networking is helping many customers better and more easily connect Internet-enabled devices, people and data centers—and fueling these businesses to perform more efficiently,” said Dharmesh Thakker, a Battery Ventures general partner. “ZeroTier truly has the potential to reshape how businesses and devices connect and collaborate in a digital-first world.”
ZeroTier complements existing network solutions while offering clear advantages over legacy VPN and other software-defined networking platforms. In addition to a robust community of over 400,000 engaged members, ZeroTier offers:
- Device-centric networking solutions purpose-built for large deployments of userless devices as seen in IoT
- A software-defined solution that is hardware and ISP-agnostic, creating a bridge across disparate networks
- Built-in security including end-to-end encryption, unique cryptographic IDs for device authorization, micro-segmentation of networks and centralized security monitoring.
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