Right out the gate, let’s cut to the chase as we talk about ZeroTier; the company’s IoT M.O., its recent funding, and the appointment of a new CEO.
The mission: Focus on making global networking simple. “With us,” the company writes, “connect all of your devices on a single network that you provision and control.” ZeroTier enables direct two-way connections with IoT devices in the field, no matter what connection they use or where they happen to be. ZeroTier’s device-centric architecture – wholly optimized for IoT deployments – is made easily navigable (especially for last-mile connections) and is easy to install on virtually any device. Deployable in minutes from anywhere, ZeroTier boasts upwards of 3 million monthly active devices (and counting) spanning 220 countries and territories.
The funding: In an statement made earlier today, in fact, ZeroTier has secured $13.5 million in Series A funding. This round was led by Battery Ventures; additional participation came from Bonfire Ventures, Anorak Ventures, Grand Enterprises B.V., Airbridge Equity Partners, First In Ventures, and 7percent Ventures. According to the official announcement, this financing will enable ZeroTier to fund its ongoing product development and, quote, “the geographic expansion of operations to support our strong global growth trajectory.”
The new CEO: Andrew Gault is a founding partner of the aforementioned 7percent Ventures, as well as the former CTO of (and expert programmer at) Gaikai, which sold to Sony for $380 million back in 2012.
“With internet-connected devices outnumbering humans by a factor of three, the need for secure connectivity between devices is skyrocketing,” Gault explained. “Unfortunately, there are very few scalable, flexible and vendor-agnostic options available to enterprises today. ZeroTier lives at the crux of this market need, creating global private networks that easily connect devices directly to each other, no matter where they are in the world.”
For more information about how ZeroTier’s offerings come together, read here.