Telstra Ventures backs Cumulus Networks

Telstra Ventures has led a US$43 million (A$53.7 million) round of investment in open networking software maker Cumulus Networks.

The vendor’s main product is a Linux operating system for network switches used in enterprise and data centre environments.

It said it would use the Series D funding round to “advance its mission: to free customers from expensive proprietary network stacks” and bring web-scale automation to more companies, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.

Telstra Ventures managing director Mark Sherman said in a statement that Telstra “had the advantage of being a Cumulus Networks customer first, which gave us several months of first-hand experience working with their products, services and team".

“After that experience, we were eager to expand our partnership and invest in the company,” he said.

“Open networking is key to growing service provider capabilities and we are thrilled to have Cumulus join our portfolio of strategic, innovative companies.”

Cumulus said it had “tripled its business in the Asia Pacific region” during 2017, as well as experiencing strong growth in Europe and the Middle East.

It has now had total funding injections of US$129 million.