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- Forward Networks
Forward Networks Valuation, Funding & Investors
Forward Networks is valued at $140M as of October 2019.
Last Forward Networks valuation
$140M
Series C · Oct 2019
Last Forward Networks funding round
$50M
Series D · Jan 2023
Cumulative funding Forward Networks raised
$112M
across 4 funding rounds
Key investors in Forward Networks
Andreessen Horowitz
A.Capital Ventures
Threshold
Goldman Sachs
SV Angel
S32
About Forward Networks
Forward Networks is a Santa Clara-based provider of network assurance platforms. Its software offers visibility, policy verification, and change simulation for hybrid environments including legacy, SDN, and cloud networks. Deployed by enterprises like BT and Comcast, the platform helps prevent outages by modeling configurations on Cisco, Juniper, and Arista gear.
Founded
2013
HQ
Website
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Subscription
Valuation
$140M (Oct 2019)
Forward Networks Valuation
Forward Networks is currently valued at $140M, based on its Series C in October 2019.
The $35M round was led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from A.Capital Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Threshold.
Forward Networks valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2019 | Series C | $140M |
Forward Networks Funding History
Forward Networks has raised a total of $112M across 4 funding rounds.
Forward Networks' first fundraising round was a $11M Series A in November 2014. The most recent completed round was a $50M Series D in January 2023.
Forward Networks funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2023 | Series D | MSD Partners (lead); Omega Venture Partners; S32; A.Capital Ventures; Goldman Sachs; Andreessen Horowitz; Threshold | $50M | - | Forward Networks, founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D.s, develops digital twin network modeling software that provides security, reliability, and agility for large enterprise networks, supporting major hardware vendors and cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. The company expanded its platform to cover SecOps and Cloud operations beyond NetOps, quadrupled its customer base since its 2019 funding round, opened headquarters in Santa Clara, California, and established a development office in Bangalore, India. On January 24, 2023, Forward Networks announced a $50 million Series D funding round led by MSD Partners, with new investors Section 32 and Omega Venture Partners, and participation from existing investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Threshold Ventures, A. Capital Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. Victor Hwang from MSD Growth joined the board as part of the deal. The round closed following 139% year-over-year growth, with TechCrunch reporting ARR grew 139% between 2021 and 2022, alongside a quadrupled customer base and 96% user retention rate. MSD Partners highlighted Forward Networks' proven unit economics and strong commercial acceptance. The funding aims to support R&D investment, customer expansion, and growth in complex enterprise network architectures amid rising needs for security and visibility. Investors praised the company's scalable platform addressing growing market demands in hybrid and multicloud environments. The Series D took six months to close in December 2022, contrasting with the quicker 2019 Series C. Later updates show continued momentum, with FY2025 featuring record ARR growth, 175% surge in multi-year deals, international expansion including Japan and Europe, and nearly doubled engineering in India. |
| Oct 2019 | Series C | Goldman Sachs (lead); A.Capital Ventures; Andreessen Horowitz; Threshold | $35M | $140M | Forward Networks develops network assurance and intent-based verification software that creates mathematically accurate digital twins of enterprise networks, enabling administrators to visualize infrastructure, debug issues, verify policies, predict behavior, and reduce outages in complex environments. Founded in 2013 by Stanford PhD graduates, the platform targets large enterprises beyond manual management capabilities, supporting major hardware vendors and cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Goldman Sachs, a customer deploying Forward Enterprise across over 15,000 devices, led the $35 million Series C round on October 8, 2019, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Threshold Ventures (formerly DFJ Venture), and A. Capital, bringing total funding to over $62 million at that point. The Series C proceeds funded sales and marketing expansion into new regions and verticals, ongoing R&D, and infrastructure improvements. Post-2019, Forward Networks achieved significant traction: by the January 2023 Series D ($50 million led by MSD Partners), customers quadrupled since 2019, ARR grew 139% year-over-year from FY2021 to FY2022, and net retention reached 96%, with expansions into SecOps, cloud operations, new headquarters in Santa Clara, California, and a development office in Bangalore, India. Total funding reached $112.92 million to $118.59 million across five rounds by 2023, with ongoing support from original investors. |
| Aug 2017 | Series B | Threshold (lead); A.Capital Ventures; Andreessen Horowitz | $16M | - | Forward Networks raised $16 million in a Series B funding round on August 23, 2017, led by DFJ with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and A.Capital Ventures, bringing total funding to $27 million. The round supported growth of its network verification platform, which models network behavior to eliminate errors in operations. The company also unveiled Forward Essentials, a web application for network state access, instant search, visual topology mapping, historical diffing, team view sharing, and REST APIs for automation, alongside support for VMware ESXi virtual networking. Founded in 2013, Forward Networks provides visibility, policy verification, and change modeling to prevent outages in complex cloud and hybrid networks. |
| Nov 2014 | Series A | SV Angel; A.Capital Ventures; Andreessen Horowitz | $11M | - | Forward Networks raised $11.1 million in a funding round on approximately November 25, 2014, from investors including A.Capital Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel. The company, founded in 2013 and based in Santa Clara, California, operates in the computer and network security sector. |
Who has invested in Forward Networks?
8 investors have backed Forward Networks across its funding rounds, including Andreessen Horowitz, A.Capital Ventures, Threshold, Goldman Sachs, SV Angel and S32.
Lead investors include MSD Partners, Goldman Sachs and Threshold.
Forward Networks Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Participant | Nov 2014 | ||
| 4 | Participant | Nov 2014 | ||
| 3 | Lead | Aug 2017 | ||
| 2 | Lead | Oct 2019 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Nov 2014 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Jan 2023 | ||
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Start Free TrialForward Networks Competitors
Forward Networks competitors include listed companies like Unirita and Integrated Research, and private ones like IP Fabric, Nile, 7SIGNAL and racksnet.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publicly listed | $79M | $10M | $90M | 0.3x | ||
| Publicly listed | $49M | $11M | $37M | 0.0x | ||
| Private | - | - | $34M | - | ||
| Private | $8M | - | $775M | 96.9x | ||
| Private | - | - | $16M | - | ||
| Private | - | - | $7M | - |
Forward Networks Public Comps
Forward Networks is still privately-owned, but its public comps include Redcentric, Enea, Suresofttech, Tucows, Radcom, Intercede Group, Unirita, Crexendo, ActiveOps and Wins Technet.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $181M | $22M | 1.1x | 1.1x | 8.9x | 8.1x | |||
| $92M | $22M | 1.6x | 1.5x | 6.8x | 5.2x | |||
| $68M | $10M | 2.3x | - | 16.3x | - | |||
| $390M | $34M | 1.6x | 1.6x | 18.5x | - | |||
| $71M | $8M | 1.0x | 1.1x | 8.5x | - | |||
| $23M | $5M | 3.3x | 3.0x | 15.0x | 12.7x | |||
| $79M | $10M | 0.3x | 0.3x | 2.6x | - | |||
| $68M | $8M | 2.6x | 2.0x | 22.1x | 13.1x | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Forward Networks competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Forward Networks
| When was Forward Networks founded? | Forward Networks was founded in 2013. |
| Where is Forward Networks headquartered? | Forward Networks is headquartered in San Jose, CA, United States. |
| Is Forward Networks publicly listed? | No, Forward Networks is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Forward Networks' valuation? | Forward Networks was last valued at $140M in its Series C in October 2019. |
| How much funding has Forward Networks raised? | Forward Networks has raised $112M across 4 funding rounds. |
| What was Forward Networks' last funding round? | Forward Networks' last funding round was a $50M Series D in January 2023, led by MSD Partners. |
| Who are Forward Networks' investors? | Forward Networks' investors include A.Capital Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Threshold, Goldman Sachs, SV Angel, Omega Venture Partners, S32 and MSD Partners. |
| Which companies are comparable to Forward Networks? | Companies comparable to Forward Networks include Unirita, Integrated Research, IP Fabric, Nile, 7SIGNAL and racksnet. |
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