Source: Aviatrix, a provider of multi-cloud native networking software, raises $75M Series D led by General Catalyst, valuing the startup at $700M+
Context & Ripple Effects
This round caps a fast climb for Aviatrix: the company raised its $40M Series C led by CRV barely sixteen months ago, and this $75M Series D more than doubles its disclosed fundraising pace at a $700M+ valuation. The buyer side of the market has already shown what cloud networking assets are worth — VMware paid up for Avi Networks, which had raised $115M, back in mid-2019.
Aviatrix is not raising into a vacuum: CloudGenix's $65M Series C showed investors funding the software-defined edge of enterprise networking, while VMware's Avi Networks deal signaled that the big platform vendors see multi-cloud networking as strategic territory worth acquiring rather than building.
First-order effects
- Aviatrix gains $75M led by General Catalyst to scale sales and engineering for its multi-cloud networking platform, entering 2021 with a war chest its 2019-era competitors did not have.
- General Catalyst adds a $700M+ multi-cloud infrastructure position to its portfolio, betting on the abstraction layer between enterprises and their public clouds.
Second-order effects
- VMware, having bought Avi Networks to own cloud application delivery, now faces a well-funded independent rival selling a competing cross-cloud control plane directly to enterprises.
- Open-source alternatives feel the pressure too — Isovalent's later Cilium raise backed by Google and Microsoft shows the vendor-backed open-source lane mobilizing capital of its own to contest the same networking-and-security layer.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, multi-cloud networking consolidates around either neutral platforms like Aviatrix or hyperscaler-aligned stacks like Cilium, squeezing standalone point tools — the outcome VMware's Avi Networks purchase foreshadowed.
- Valuation velocity becomes the story: the corpus shows Aviatrix moving from $700M+ here to a $200M round at a $2B valuation just seven months later, signaling that infrastructure buyers and investors alike are repricing the multi-cloud layer faster than revenue can be publicly verified.
The trend: Enterprise networking capital is consolidating around the multi-cloud abstraction layer, with independent platforms and hyperscaler-backed open-source projects racing to become the default control plane between enterprises and their public clouds.