Pertino Raises $20M For Cloud-Based Networking Service That ...

Pertino has raised $20 million for its networking technology that small businesses can use to go online and create a network that runs entirely in the cloud. New investor Jafco Ventures led the Series B funding with participation from existing investors, including Norwest Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Pertino raised $8.85 million in a Series A round.

The company, in limited availability since last month, uses Amazon Web Service (AWS), and other cloud services, making it possible for a business of any size to create secure networks without investing in expensive, proprietary big box hardware. The company represents how businesses are creating new markets by leveraging data centers and the mesh of infrastructure that now essentially covers the planet. A software networking company would not have been possible a few years ago. It would have cost a fortune in networking gear and an army of IT professionals.

Pertino CEO Craig Elliott said in an email interview that the company used the Series A funding, which it still has mostly in reserve, for its product development, beta program and limited availability launch. The new funding will help drive its go-to-market build-out.

Pertino is initially focused on the small business market and is employing a direct-via-web sales model that includes a free-version of its product. It is also leveraging the Spiceworks IT community platform as part its go-to-market strategy. Demand is less customer-specific and more community-driven, Elliott said The top ?asks? have been around broader support for desktop and mobile devices.

Big Switch Networks and Nicira, now owned by VMware, are serving the enterprise market with their SDN technology as are Cisco, Citrix and a host of other vendors.

The transition to software based networking will have the same force of impact as online apps have had on the enterprise software market. New companies will innovate and the older, established players will focus on retaining customers. Pertino tells of that shift. It speaks of a disruption to come as hardware gets consumed by software and more companies realize the efficiencies and new capabilities they receive when they can program their infrastructure through services like AWS.

Pertino is a cloud networking company that is bringing to life a radical vision for the future of business networks. One where anyone can build a secure network in minutes that connects people to the IT resources they need from anywhere on the planet. No hardware, upfront investment or expertise required. Pertino is reinventing networking for the cloud era by fusing the power and pervasiveness of the cloud with Software-Defined Networking (SDN), network virtualization, and social-inspired user management. The founders...

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JAFCO Ventures is an independent venture capital firm investing in emerging technology companies with true breakout potential. They look for exceptional companies with differentiated technology and compelling business models. Given their close relationship among all the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, it is an investment requirement at their firm to co-invest in every deal with top-tier venture investors to help validate the opportunity and bring to their portfolio of companies the collective expertise needed to help assure...

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Lightspeed Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm with teams in Menlo Park, China, India, and Israel. Lightspeed focuses on investments in enterprise infrastructure, internet media and commerce, mobile, digital media and cleantech. Past notable investments include Nicira, Fushion-io, Playdom, Kosmix, Pliant Technology, Brocade, Blue Nile, Ciena, DoubleClick, Phone.com, and Riverbed. Selected consumer investments include: Bonobos GrubHub Lemon Living Social Kixeye Nest Thefind.com The Honest Company Snapchat Shoedazzle TaskRabbit Selected enterprise investments include: AppDynamics Boundry Delphix Embrane MapR Technology Nimble Storage Nutanix DataStax Tintri

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Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a multi-stage investment firm that has partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 50 years. The firm manages over $3.7 billion in capital and has funded more than 500 companies since inception. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., NVP has subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel. NVP makes early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors including: technology, information services, business services, financial...

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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/07/pertino-raises-20m-for-cloud-based-networking-service/

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