Pluribus Networks just landed $50M in Series D, raising its total funding to $92.8M, which helped them leapfrog Cumulus Networks in total funding raised. Pluribus Network is used by CloudFlare in their CDN infrastructure. Going back in time to 2007, Ncira Networks is the start-up that introduced SDN to the world, where they raised $41.8M, and sold to VMWare for an astonishing $1.26B. The list of SDN start-ups below include some of the more well known names, as well as some relatively new ones. One common theme in the SDN start-up world – a big chunk of the start-ups were Co-founded by Stanford PHD’s.
Interesting Nuggets on the SDN Start-up Scene
- Four SDN Start-ups were founded in 2010, three in 2012, and two in 2013
- Total funding for all 9 SDN Start-ups is $330.3M
- 8 of 9 start-ups are based in Silicon Valley
- Barefoot Networks has Nick McKeown, Stanford Professor as a co-founder, who was also a Co-founder of Ncira Networks
- Barefoot Networks Principal Software Architect spent 3 years as a member of the Technical Staff at Big Switch Networks
- Forward Networks has 4 PHD’s from Stanford, and one of the Co-founders was advised by Nick McKeown
- Versa Networks Co-founder was previously CTO of Juniper Networks
| Company | Â Founded | Emp | Raised | HQ | |
| 1 | Pluribus Networks | 2010 | 80 | Â $92.8M | Palo Alto |
| 2 | Big Switch Networks | 2010 | Â 85 | Â $44.7M | Â Santa Clara |
| 3 | Plexxi | 2010 | Â 79 | Â $48.4M | Â Cambridge |
| 4 | Cumulus Networks | 2010 | Â 91 | Â $51M | Â Mountain View |
| 5 | Viptela | 2012 | Â 51 | Â $33.5M | Â San Jose |
| 6 | Avi Networks | 2012 | Â 41 | Â $33M | Â Sunnyvale |
| 7 | Versa Networks | 2012 | Â 53 | Â $14.4M | Â Santa Clara |
| 8 | Barefoot Networks | 2013 | Â 20 | Â $1.4M | Â Palo Alto |
| 9 | Forward Networks | 2013 | Â 9 | Â $11.1M | Â Los Altos |
*data collected from crunchbase and employee count from LinkedIn.