Packet is moving its vision of expanding its edge computing presence forward with a $25 million series B round of funding.
The investment round was led by Third Point Ventures, a new investor, and included other new investors such as Battery Ventures and Samsung NEXT, as well as existing investors SoftBank Corp. and Dell Technologies Capital. Robert Schwartz and Shawn Cherian, both of Third Point Ventures, joined Packet’s board. Packet was founded in 2014 and it raised $9.4 million in its series A round of investment.
Along with today's funding round, Packet also announced the appointments of Ihab Tarazi as its CTO and George Karidis as COO. Tarazi came over to Packet in June after leaving his post as CTO of Equinix last year. Thao Nyugen also joined the company, as director of hardware platforms. Nyugen previously worked at Facebook, where he led the development and deployment of over 1 million Open Compute Project servers over the past eight years.
Packet integrates software operating system (OS) platforms, including Kubernetes, into bare-metal servers in its public cloud that are hosted in Packet's data center. Packet's users, which include developers that work at enterprises, can pick their own hardware, which is then automated for use by Packet's software.
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Packet has built a product based on microservices and software platforms that fully integrate with the larger platforms that its customers are using, such as Core OS or Linux, while also supporting a range of other platforms and operating systems. Packet's plan is to move those cloud capabilities to the edge by partnering with cell tower companies.
Packet will use its new funding to expand product, engineering, sales and marketing teams, grow into new locations as part of its Edge product and release an on-premise version of the software that powers Packet’s public cloud.
“By pairing an innovative hardware delivery model with the consumption experience of modern DevOps users, we are building a new kind of service provider that can cost-effectively deploy in hundreds or thousands of locations,” said Tarazi in a statement. “This is a fundamental re-architecture of edge computing to support the shift in enterprise applications, as well as new IoT and 5G platforms.”
Packet will also use some of the funding to increase its current 18 global locations to 50. In a departure from the hyperscale cloud model, Packet said it was inviting physical and supply chain partners to participate in what it expects to be a disaggregated and expanding ecosystem.
On the technology front, Packet also announced today a major update to its cloud platform that enables bare metal installations on its public cloud in under 60 seconds.