Participated · Series C · Aug 2023

Nile delivers wired and wireless networking as a service to large corporate customers, providing hardware and cloud-managed software on a pay-as-you-go basis that scales with usage. Its platform automates device configuration, continuous software upgrades, and security patches, and uses a network of physical and virtual sensors and telemetry to analyze performance and deploy software bots to remedy anomalies. Nile says it tripled its customer base since September 2022 and counts Stanford University, Pitney Bowes and Carta among its clients, with repeat deployment contracts now worth about $100,000 annually. The company has about 185 employees and plans to expand to just over 210 by the end of the year. Nile raised $175 million in a Series C and has now raised $300 million in total, with the bulk of the new capital earmarked for go-to-market growth and hiring. For strategic reasons, Nile pursued equity investors to help drive expansion into the Middle East and deepen its presence in Europe. Nile develops a services-first corporate networking platform that combines access points, access switches, distribution switches and management software to monitor network health and application performance. The company charges organizations based on the number of people using its networking infrastructure each month rather than selling large hardware boxes. Nile says its services-only model can save clients 30%–50% at each deployed location. Its technology became generally available in May and the company reports 20 production deployments, including Sprinklr, ThoughtSpot and the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Nile was founded by ex-Cisco CEO John Chambers and ex-Cisco development chief Pankaj Patel, who serves as CEO, and the pair position the business to challenge incumbents like Cisco, Juniper and Aruba. Financially, Nile has raised capital while keeping rounds confidential and claims to be scaling commercial deployments.