In an period the place 65% of community modifications are nonetheless made manually utilizing error-prone spreadsheets, infrastructure groups face mounting strain to handle more and more complicated environments whereas stopping expensive downtime and safety vulnerabilities. The explosion of AI-driven knowledge facilities and distributed networks has intensified these challenges, with organizations struggling to keep up correct documentation, implement compliance, and speed up automation initiatives throughout their expertise footprints. NetBox Labs addresses this essential hole by offering the industry-standard supply of fact for community and infrastructure administration, utilized by tens of 1000’s of organizations together with hyperscalers, Fortune 500 enterprises, and authorities businesses worldwide. The corporate’s complete platform consists of NetBox for operations and documentation, NetBox Discovery for automated community mapping, and NetBox Assurance for detecting and fixing infrastructure drift, whereas the upcoming NetBox Operator will convey AI-powered autonomous operations to community groups. With their rising partnerships with techniques integrators who acknowledge NetBox as foundational for enterprise transformations, NetBox Labs permits groups to handle complicated infrastructure with confidence whereas lowering handbook work throughout operations, automation, observability, and safety use instances.
AlleyWatch sat down with NetBox Labs co-founder and CEO Kris Beevers to be taught extra concerning the enterprise, its future plans, current $35M Collection B spherical that brings complete funding to $55M, and far, far more…
Who have been your traders and the way a lot did you increase?
NetBox Labs raised a $35M Collection B funding spherical led by NGP Capital, with participation from Sorenson Capital and b Present traders participated within the spherical, together with Flybridge Capital, Notable Capital, Mango Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, and IBM.
Inform us concerning the services or products that NetBox Labs affords.
NetBox is the system of document that community and infrastructure groups depend on to speed up expertise operations throughout the enterprise.
NetBox is pervasive in any tech infrastructure. Tens of 1000’s of huge corporations, hyperscalers, the brand new AI scale-ups — everybody makes use of it.
In simply a short while, NetBox has turn into the usual for the way fashionable expertise infrastructure is constructed, managed, and automatic to speed up innovation, streamline operations, unlock AI use instances, and assure adherence to essential efficiency and safety requirements.
The corporate additionally affords NetBox Discovery for automated community and gadget discovery; NetBox Assurance for locating and fixing drift in infrastructure from its supposed state; and NetBox Copilot, which is an AI-powered assistant that helps you discover, perceive, and act in your NetBox knowledge. NetBox Analytics, an information providing atop NetBox’s wealthy operational knowledge units for forecasting and planning; and NetBox Operator, an agentic AI operations platform for community and infrastructure groups, are additionally in growth.
NetBox Labs is the business steward of open-source NetBox. We offer enterprise-grade options with superior options and integrations, just like what Databricks, Grafana Labs, and MongoDB do in open-source.
What impressed the beginning of NetBox Labs?
The cofounders of NetBox Labs began the corporate in 2023 to be the business steward of NetBox.
Whereas CEO (and cofounder) of NS1, my staff and I encountered NetBox all over the place we went. It was pervasive. I then employed NetBox challenge founder Jeremy Stretch at NS1. NetBox Labs was born out of NS1 and have become a standalone firm when IBM acquired NS1.
Now, NetBox Labs is on a mission to make constructing and managing complicated networks and infrastructure simpler. We additionally put the group first — each contributor, detractor, tinkerer, and NetBox Labs buyer, associate, investor, or worker. Their suggestions, help, direct and oblique contributions, and each different form of engagement stay important to our collective innovation journey.
How is NetBox Labs totally different?
There are a few issues that make NetBox Labs distinctive:
- The expertise is pervasive. NetBox is the one impartial and common community and infrastructure supply of fact. NetBox is a typical thread discovered all through a lot of the world’s tech infrastructure.
- The NetBox Labs staff is made up of expertise and {industry} visionaries with a confirmed observe document of remodeling infrastructure markets. This consists of NS1, which was acquired by IBM in 2023. Our traders even have a wildly profitable observe document in constructing open-source expertise leaders, together with many in infrastructure like Mongo, Hashicorp, and Grafana Labs.
What market does NetBox Labs goal and the way large is it?
NetBox Labs operates within the community and infrastructure administration market. It addresses wants throughout 4 main classes: operations, observability, automation, and safety. The corporate targets hyperscalers, AI scale-ups, Fortune 500 enterprises, authorities businesses, and international infrastructure suppliers.
There’s a enormous alternative inside this market as 65% of community modifications are nonetheless made manually, typically utilizing spreadsheets. This handbook work is error-prone and cumbersome, stifling innovation, and leaving groups feeling overwhelmed. And on the similar time, funding in tech infrastructure is skyrocketing, particularly pushed by the meteoric rise of AI.
What’s your small business mannequin?
NetBox Labs follows a business open-source mannequin, just like Databricks or Mongo. Whereas NetBox is freely obtainable as an open-source device, the corporate affords enterprise-grade merchandise—NetBox Cloud and NetBox Enterprise, together with an array of further high-value merchandise constructed across the knowledge in NetBox — with superior options, integrations, help, and companies. Income comes from delivering tangible worth to organizations managing essential infrastructure.
How are you getting ready for a possible financial slowdown?
NetBox Labs is grounded in delivering sensible, high-value outcomes equivalent to operational effectivity, safety, and automation, which are sometimes prioritized in occasions of price range strain. Our deal with a sustainable, open-source-driven mannequin supported by buyer income offers sturdiness and compounding group worth.
What was the funding course of like?
Bluntly, NetBox Labs is rising extremely shortly in an enormous market with a novel imaginative and prescient and secular tailwinds, managed by a world-class staff that’s raised lots of of thousands and thousands of enterprise funding, and backed by supportive traders who have been desirous to take part on this most up-to-date spherical. It was a fast course of. We’re thrilled with the consequence and to have the NGP Capital staff on board, together with our different new traders, Sorenson and Headline.
What are the largest challenges that you just confronted whereas elevating capital?
We’re very selective within the investing companions we work with. We have been thrilled with the demand we noticed and needed to make some powerful decisions about who to work with in a really oversubscribed spherical.
What components about your small business led your traders to jot down the verify?
Key components included:
- Ubiquitous adoption of NetBox throughout sectors and geographies, alongside our positioning because the system of document for infrastructure and a foundational layer for automation and AI-driven operations.
- Robust open-source group that we’re essentially dedicated to.
- Confirmed business traction with lots of of enterprise clients.
- A staff with a observe document of success, together with management from NS1, New Relic, AppNexus, and different world-class companies.
- We’re constructing a world-class enterprise with the potential for enormous scale, and we’re doing it very, very quick.
What are the milestones you intend to attain within the subsequent six months?
We’re seeing robust international demand for enterprise-class NetBox options, and our precedence over the subsequent six months is to fulfill that demand by accelerating product innovation, increasing our staff, and deepening buyer and group engagement. We’ve already doubled our worker rely this 12 months and can proceed hiring throughout engineering, buyer success, advertising and marketing, product, partnerships, and gross sales to scale with progress.
A key milestone is increasing our associate ecosystem. Programs integrators — who assist massive enterprises handle complicated transformations — are embracing NetBox as a foundational system of document. They see it as a strategy to cut back errors, speed up deployments, and allow automation at scale. We’re investing in constructing stronger partnerships, extra integrations, and expanded help for international enterprise clients.
As all the time, we’re investing again into the open-source group, growing our contributions and product velocity whereas persevering with to help and develop the colourful group of NetBox customers and builders.
What recommendation are you able to provide corporations in New York that should not have a contemporary injection of capital within the financial institution?
Focus relentlessly on the basics: constructing merchandise that remedy actual issues, participating deeply with clients, and making a tradition that values execution over hype. You don’t want a giant stability sheet to maneuver shortly — you want readability, self-discipline, and a good suggestions loop with the individuals who rely on what you’re constructing. Keep near your customers, spend money on what differentiates you, and keep away from distractions that don’t drive significant outcomes.
Focus relentlessly on the basics: constructing merchandise that remedy actual issues, participating deeply with clients, and making a tradition that values execution over hype. You don’t want a giant stability sheet to maneuver shortly — you want readability, self-discipline, and a good suggestions loop with the individuals who rely on what you’re constructing. Keep near your customers, spend money on what differentiates you, and keep away from distractions that don’t drive significant outcomes.
In harder environments, the groups that win are those that function intentionally and help one another. Collaboration, adaptability, and group matter greater than ever when sources are tight. On the finish of the day, capital can speed up progress, however it’s nice product, nice individuals, and operational focus that create lasting influence.
When you’re in New York, you’re surrounded by an amazing ecosystem that’s risen shortly over the past 10-15 years. Lean on that. So many world-class companies, particularly in enterprise tech and infrastructure, have been inbuilt New York. NetBox Labs attracts on what we discovered constructing NS1, which itself drew on what we discovered constructing Voxel – from which spawned a complete mafia of nice infrastructure corporations. There are a lot of such tales in New York. Discover that have, and draw from it.
The place do you see the corporate going now over the close to time period?
NetBox Labs is on the forefront of a pivotal shift in infrastructure administration, the place automation, standardization, and open-source innovation are reworking how organizations function at scale. Within the close to time period, NetBox will turn into the default system of document for essential infrastructure throughout industries, from AI scale-ups and hyperscalers to international enterprises and authorities businesses.
With innovation in AI, cloud, and networking accelerating quicker than infrastructure groups can adapt, corporations are racing to modernize outdated practices. Many nonetheless depend on spreadsheets and handbook processes for essential operations. NetBox Labs helps clients transfer past that, offering a common, automated supply of fact that unlocks operational effectivity, strengthens safety, and powers automation.
We’re constructing on this momentum by increasing globally, scaling our enterprise buyer base, and cementing partnerships with techniques integrators and expertise suppliers. On the similar time, we’ll proceed to guide within the open-source group, driving collaboration and accelerating infrastructure innovation.
What’s your favourite summer time vacation spot in and across the metropolis?
Nowadays I largely stay close to the seaside. The Jersey Shore isn’t fairly what you’ve seen on TV. Head down the shore and spend a while on the seaside or on the water. It’s my favourite strategy to re-energize after a busy week.
You’re seconds away from signing up for the most popular record in NYC Tech!
Join as we speak