Avi Networks Raises $60M in Series D, Adds Cisco Investments as New Investor

Avi Networks, the leader in intent-based application services, has raised an investment from Cisco Investments along with DAG Ventures, Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Menlo Ventures for its oversubscribed $60 million round. This brings Avi’s total funding to $115 million. 

Avi has achieved more than 300% year-over-year growth with significant adoption by the Global 2000, including 20% of the Fortune 50.

Cisco resells the Avi Vantage Platform in markets around the world, and Avi closely integrates with Cisco ACI, Cisco’s intent-based networking and automation solution for the data center.

“Modern applications are driving a new urgency with which enterprises are automating their networks and application delivery systems,” said Amit Pandey, CEO of Avi Networks. “Cisco software and infrastructure are a cornerstone in this transformation. I am thrilled about this strategic investment from Cisco and our continued joint efforts to deliver the elasticity, intelligence, and multi-cloud capabilities that enterprises need.”

“We are excited at the opportunity to invest in Avi Networks,” said Rob Salvagno, vice president, Corporate Development at Cisco. “We believe Avi Networks has built a disruptive platform for L4 - L7 application services with a software-centric approach, enabling customers to scale network automation and application delivery across both private and public clouds.”

Avi Networks is redefining the application delivery controller (ADC) market with its intent-based platform. The Avi Vantage Platform delivers automated application services with a Software Load Balancer, an Intelligent Web Application Firewall, and an Elastic Service Mesh for container-based applications. As businesses shift their operations to clouds such as Azure and AWS, Avi’s intent-based software offers easier management, faster performance, greater elasticity, deeper analytics, and more powerful automation than legacy ADC vendors.

Last year Avi grew its bookings 300 percent, tripling its customer list with new signings including Adobe and several of the world’s largest banks.

This year, Cisco Investments has backed 9 companies including Avi Networks. Its recent investments include RStor, Nantero, Voicera, Gong.io, Upskill (formerly APX Labs), Dynamic Signal, BehavioSec, and Almotive. In March, it also made its investment in a venture capital fund in India by backing IDG Ventures India, one of the oldest domestic VC firms here. And in January, the California-based company backed another Indian venture fund Stellaris Venture Partners, which launched a year ago.