Netris raises $15M from a16z to speed up AI data center deployments

Network automation startup Netris has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, the company exclusively told Bitcoin World. The investment is aimed at helping so-called AI neoclouds — smaller data center operators focused on GPU-heavy workloads — reduce the time it takes to get their infrastructure online and serving customers.

The neocloud bottleneck

The AI boom has triggered a surge in demand for specialized computing power, prompting a wave of new data center operators to enter the market. But spinning up a facility involves more than just securing Nvidia or AMD GPUs, network switches, and storage. Operators must configure the entire stack, enable multi-tenancy, and ensure the network can handle the extreme traffic demands of AI training and inference. For many neoclouds, this process can take months — during which expensive hardware sits idle.

Netris provides a software platform that automates network setup, configuration, and ongoing operations. The company’s technology runs directly on network switches and offers a hardware-accelerated abstraction layer, allowing operators to manage multiple tenants and change hardware configurations without manual reconfiguration. CEO Alex Saroyan said the platform is vendor-agnostic and works with both Nvidia and AMD-based server environments.

Why traditional SDN falls short for AI

Saroyan explained that traditional software-defined networking (SDN) is not well-suited for AI workloads because of the sheer volume of traffic involved. “For AI, software is not okay, because the amount of traffic is so high, everything must be hardware accelerated,” he said. “You need something like SDN, but completely hardware accelerated. This is what we do.”

Notably, Netris does not use artificial intelligence for its core automation. Saroyan said the company relies on deterministic algorithms developed over the past eight years. “AI is not deterministic. Sometimes it likes to do things on its own. For changing many thousands of switch configurations, you need to be very persistent and repeatable,” he added.

Adoption and momentum

Netris is already deployed at more than 35 GPU clusters worldwide, supporting approximately one million GPUs. Customers include Lightning AI, Foxconn, Visionbay, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Tensorwave, and Telus. The company gained early traction after Nvidia recommended its technology to several clients following a demo two years ago.

With the new funding, Netris plans to hire additional engineering and sales staff, expand support for more hardware vendors, and add new capabilities to its automation algorithms. a16z partner Guido Appenzeller will join the company’s board as part of the investment.

Conclusion

As AI infrastructure demand continues to outpace supply, the ability to quickly deploy and operate GPU clusters is becoming a competitive advantage. Netris’ approach — focusing on deterministic, hardware-accelerated automation rather than AI-driven solutions — addresses a real operational pain point for a growing market. The Series A funding from a16z signals confidence in the company’s strategy and the broader neocloud ecosystem.

FAQs

Q1: What exactly does Netris do?
Netris provides network automation software that helps data center operators configure, manage, and operate their network infrastructure more quickly. Its platform is designed for GPU-heavy AI workloads and supports multiple hardware vendors.

Q2: Why is this funding round significant?
The $15 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz is a signal that investors see value in the infrastructure layer supporting AI neoclouds. It also validates Netris’ approach of using deterministic algorithms rather than AI for network automation.

Q3: Who are Netris’ main customers?
Netris works with AI neoclouds and GPU cluster operators, including Lightning AI, Foxconn, Visionbay, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Tensorwave, and Telus. Its platform is live at over 35 clusters globally.