SD-WAN vendor Aryaka has secured a $45 million Series D round of financing, advancing its profile in the growing market segment.
Led by Third Point Ventures, Aryaka added Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners (DTCP) as a new investor.
Aryaka claims the new cash infusion in combination with participating existing investors is not only a validation of the company’s SD-WAN technology, but also marks the first funding investment in global SD-WAN by a large telecom provider.
Robert Schwartz, managing partner of Third Point Ventures, said in a release that Aryaka is taking advantage of the emerging trend of businesses migrating from MPLS to other bandwidth service alternatives.
“Aryaka is positioned perfectly at the tipping point of an enormous marketplace that is moving away from legacy MPLS technology and looking into next-generation solutions to help connect seamlessly worldwide to business-critical applications,” Schwartz said in a release.
The vendor’s new funding round, which brings its total funding to $120 million, will help Aryaka aggressively expand its global reach.
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Getting access to Series D funding comes at what has been a growth period for Arayaka, which has racked up over 500 customers.
“The investment includes participation from existing investors and two new investors, including Third Point Ventures which has made investments in Lyft and the other one is the investment arm of a telco,” said Shehzad Karkhanawala, a spokesman for Aryaka, in an interview with Fierce Telecom. “Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners’ investment is really phenomenal because telcos are starting to notice we’re replacing MPLS and because of our promise for cloud applications and the way we’re challenging the status quo.”
Although this latest round of funding provides much needed validation of its approach, the SD-WAN market Aryaka has plenty of competitors that have also made inroads with service providers.
A number of Aryaka’s competitors like Viptela, VeloCloud and Versa have been chosen as one of AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon and Windstream’s SD-WAN vendor partners.
In related news, Aryaka named Aidan Cullen, a 25-year telecom veteran, as its new CFO.
Cullen comes to Aryaka with financial experience in global technology companies within the software, networking, and telecommunications industries. He has held CFO positions at CliQr Technology (Cisco), Gigamon, Sylantro Systems (Broadsoft), and Tasman Networks (Nortel).