Tata Communications, a leading global digital infrastructure provider, announces that NetFoundry™, a software and business developed as part of Tata Communications’ Shape the Future innovation and entrepreneurship programme, has become an independent subsidiary within the Tata Communications Group. NetFoundry passed the $1 million USD annual recurring revenue (ARR) milestone in less than two years of selling its services, growing ARR by over 50% on a quarter-over-quarter basis for the past three quarters. Through this spin-off, Tata Communications aims to help the North Carolina-based company to accelerate its growth further.
“By spinning off NetFoundry, we want to help this innovative, ambitious start-up boost its speed of execution and capture a larger share of a nascent market,” says Tri Pham, Chief Strategy Officer, Tata Communications. “This is an exciting milestone for not just NetFoundry but also for Tata Communications’ Shape the Future, setting a great precedent for scaling other similar breakthrough ventures from this programme.”
The NetFoundryTM platform eliminates the complexity and cost of traditional business networking. It spurs innovation by enabling customers to programmatically embed private networking into their applications and solutions. The result is that application providers, cloud and system integrators, managed service providers and leading-edge businesses can deliver applications across any set of edges and clouds, with zero trust security and optimised performance, and without relying on configuration, private circuits or custom hardware. Customers control their networks via NetFoundry’s web console, APIs and SDKs. They can access NetFoundry’s global Software Defined Network (SDN) from any Internet connection, while NetFoundry manages all the underlying infrastructure in a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) model. NetFoundry’s software is available in leading cloud and edge marketplaces, such as AWS, Azure, CoreSite, Digital Ocean and IBM Cloud.
The SaaS start-up is one of the first ideas conceptualised, incubated and funded as a breakthrough idea under Tata Communications’ Shape the Future. This programme offers a platform for Tata Communications’ employees to innovate and create new businesses. These businesses are supported by Tata Communications but operate and grow as independent start-ups, using agile processes and systems.
“Through Tata Communications’ Shape the Future, NetFoundry has received guidance to help us scale the business along with the freedom to learn and refine our offering as a start-up,” says Galeal Zino, Founder and CEO of NetFoundry. “So, we’ve had the best of both worlds: the backing of a leading global digital infrastructure services provider, with the autonomy to innovate independently. We look forward to enabling customer innovation globally, as developers use NetFoundry to spin up networking in the same way that they use IaaS providers to spin up compute.”
“We encourage innovation in all areas of our business, because we know it’s crucial for all organisations – start-ups like NetFoundry and big companies like Tata Communications – to grow in highly competitive markets,” adds Tri Pham. “We believe that to innovate successfully, organisations must foster an internal culture that encourages employees venture out of their comfort zone and dare to try new things without a fear failure. Tata Communications’ Shape the Future is a prime example of that. We also see huge value in bringing together the right ecosystem of partners – from start-up hubs, universities and the technology ecosystem worldwide – to drive the development of new disruptive ideas. Through this innovation strategy, we strive to add value to everyone: our customers, partners, employees and our industry.”