$35 Million in New VeloCloud Funding to 'Add Depth' to Channel Program

VeloCloud Networks, the cloud-based SD-WAN provider, is expanding globally and adding support for its partners thanks to a round of generous funding.

The Mountain View, California-based company announced Thursday that it has finished a $35 million round of series D funding.

Hermes Growth Partners led the funding round, which VeloCloud said brought its total up to $84 million.

“We have been following the exploding SD-WAN space very closely and recognize its potential to transform enterprise WAN,” said Bobby Yerramilli-Rao, founder and partner at Hermes Growth Partners. “We decided to invest in VeloCloud because of the company’s highly differentiated solution, superb track record with customers, and exceptional management team.”

VeloCloud CEO Sanjay Uppal told Channel Partners that the funds will go to three specific areas: expanding the company’s geographic footprint outside of the U.S., consolidating its position in the already strong North American market, and growing its product road map. He said his company will grow its billing and operations teams.

VeloCloud, which sells through the channel, will use some of the cash to deepen its partner program. Specifically, Uppal said it would add training — both self-service and in-person. “We are really helping the channel partners, both on the business side as well as on the technical side to (No. 1) identify the right prospects that are out there and then take them everywhere from just a raw lead into a [point of contact] and a close.”

Some of the training includes teaching partners how to deliver SD-WAN as a service.

“… how to wrap it around the solution and the services that they would provide so that it’s an extremely compelling ROI to the end customer,” Uppal said.

VeloCloud is well known for the service providers that have partnered with it in the last year, most recently MegaPath and Windstream. Uppal said his company’s growth has exceeded expectations and will continue to stay on top of SD-WAN demand thanks to the new funding.

“We really see that SD-WAN is going to become the pivotal technology for wide-area networking in general,’ he said. “It’s not just a new product; it’s actually an entirely new architecture.”

Other investors for the fundraising series include Telstra Ventures, the investment fund of the government of Malyasia, New Enterprise Associates, March Capital Partners, Venrock and Cisco Investments.