Netris secures $15M Series A from a16z to automate AI data center networking

Netris secures $15M Series A from a16z to automate AI data center networking

The network automation startup has grown ARR by 800% in the past year as GPU-powered data centers scramble for infrastructure software

Running a massive GPU data center is hard enough. Making all those machines actually talk to each other efficiently? That’s where things get really complicated, and really expensive.

Netris, a Santa Clara-based software company, just raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz to tackle exactly that problem. The funding, announced on June 25, will go toward expanding the company’s engineering and commercial teams, opening a new office in Singapore, and building out ecosystem partnerships.

What Netris actually does

Netris built what it calls the NAAM platform, which stands for Network Automation, Abstraction, and Multi-Tenancy. It automates the networking layer so that large-scale AI clusters can be deployed and managed without a small army of network engineers hand-configuring everything.

The platform handles multi-fabric environments, meaning it can manage both Ethernet and InfiniBand networking within the same deployment. It also handles multi-tenant isolation, which is critical for cloud operators who need to keep different customers’ workloads separate on shared infrastructure.

Advertisement

Netris is the first independent software vendor validated by NVIDIA for AI network automation.

The numbers behind the hype

Netris reported 800% growth in annual recurring revenue over the past year. The company has also completed more than 35 production deployments and claims a 12% share of the neo-cloud market by cluster count.

For context, the company had previously announced 622% year-over-year ARR growth in 2025, with 15 AI cloud operators onboarded in just 10 months.

Prior to this Series A, Netris had raised under $6 million total. Guido Appenzeller, an a16z partner, will join the Netris board as part of the deal.

Netris counts Lightning AI and TELUS among its customers, alongside partnerships with NVIDIA, Red Hat, and HPE.

Why a16z is betting on network plumbing

CEO Alex Saroyan brings over 25 years of networking experience to the problem, with previous stints at Cisco and Ruckus.

The planned Singapore office signals that Netris is looking beyond North America.

What this means for investors

The 800% ARR growth and 12% neo-cloud market share by cluster count suggest Netris has found a real wedge in a market that’s still forming. The neo-cloud segment, which refers to the wave of specialized AI cloud providers building GPU-first infrastructure, is expanding rapidly as enterprises look beyond the Big Three hyperscalers for AI workloads.

Netris’s advantage right now is specialization: it’s built specifically for AI and GPU workloads rather than trying to be a general-purpose networking tool.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Netris secures $15M Series A from a16z to automate AI data center networking

Netris secures $15M Series A from a16z to automate AI data center networking

The network automation startup has grown ARR by 800% in the past year as GPU-powered data centers scramble for infrastructure software

Running a massive GPU data center is hard enough. Making all those machines actually talk to each other efficiently? That’s where things get really complicated, and really expensive.

Netris, a Santa Clara-based software company, just raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz to tackle exactly that problem. The funding, announced on June 25, will go toward expanding the company’s engineering and commercial teams, opening a new office in Singapore, and building out ecosystem partnerships.

What Netris actually does

Netris built what it calls the NAAM platform, which stands for Network Automation, Abstraction, and Multi-Tenancy. It automates the networking layer so that large-scale AI clusters can be deployed and managed without a small army of network engineers hand-configuring everything.

The platform handles multi-fabric environments, meaning it can manage both Ethernet and InfiniBand networking within the same deployment. It also handles multi-tenant isolation, which is critical for cloud operators who need to keep different customers’ workloads separate on shared infrastructure.

Advertisement

Netris is the first independent software vendor validated by NVIDIA for AI network automation.

The numbers behind the hype

Netris reported 800% growth in annual recurring revenue over the past year. The company has also completed more than 35 production deployments and claims a 12% share of the neo-cloud market by cluster count.

For context, the company had previously announced 622% year-over-year ARR growth in 2025, with 15 AI cloud operators onboarded in just 10 months.

Prior to this Series A, Netris had raised under $6 million total. Guido Appenzeller, an a16z partner, will join the Netris board as part of the deal.

Netris counts Lightning AI and TELUS among its customers, alongside partnerships with NVIDIA, Red Hat, and HPE.

Why a16z is betting on network plumbing

CEO Alex Saroyan brings over 25 years of networking experience to the problem, with previous stints at Cisco and Ruckus.

The planned Singapore office signals that Netris is looking beyond North America.

What this means for investors

The 800% ARR growth and 12% neo-cloud market share by cluster count suggest Netris has found a real wedge in a market that’s still forming. The neo-cloud segment, which refers to the wave of specialized AI cloud providers building GPU-first infrastructure, is expanding rapidly as enterprises look beyond the Big Three hyperscalers for AI workloads.

Netris’s advantage right now is specialization: it’s built specifically for AI and GPU workloads rather than trying to be a general-purpose networking tool.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.