Networking Startup Arrcus Raises $30M, Unveils Enhanced OS To Compete With Cisco, Arista

Network infrastructure startup Arrcus has raised $30 million in Series B funding and is launching a new version of its independent, and increasingly popular operating system, ArcOS.

The latest -- and oversubscribed -- funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and brings the company's total capital raised to $49 million, Arrcus' Founder and CEO Devesh Garg told CRN.

 "This capital is going to allow us to support our rapidly growing customer base scale strategic partnerships and expand the overall reach of our primary product -- ArcOS," Garg said.

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 Arrcus was founded by Broadcom and Cisco veterans, including Garg, CTO Keyur Patel, and Chief Architect Derek Yeung in 2016. The company has recently emerged from stealth mode with its vendor-agnostic network switching and routing operating system, ArcOS. The company set out to offer the missing link for businesses: an integrated, software-based approach to network operation, Garg said.

 "There's all this great innovation happening at the component level, and there's all this flexibility and diversity happening at the system level, but there hasn't been software that's a viable alternative to Cisco and Arista," he said.

 The company on Tuesday announced that it has expanded the applicability of ArcOS to provide multiple high-density 100GbE and 400GbE routing solutions for new use cases, such as hyperscale cloud, edge, and 5G networks. Arrcus' ArcOS offers a simple, scalable, and secure operating system in a flexible consumption model, Garg said.

 The latest version of ArcOS is the first independent operating system to be run on Broadcom’s 10Tbps, highly-flexible and programmable StrataDNX Jericho2 switch-router system-on-a-chip. The chip gives 2.6 million routes and uses 70 percent less power, the company said.

 "This translates to packing more into a smaller form factor and as you distribute it into edge application, you need software capabilities that unleash that power, and that's what ArcOS does," he said.

 Complementing its enhanced operating system, Arrcus is also introducing ArcIQ, a standalone, AI-driven analytics platform that offers real-time analytics and telemetry at scale for a modern network operations center, the company said.

 "We are really able to farm a tremendous amount of information from our operating system, and ArcIQ is the platform by which we can take that information and provide really unique solutions that focus on security," he said.

 The San Jose, Calif.-based company doesn't have a formal channel program, but the company works with many solution providers on behalf of end customers. Garg said that Arrcus will be putting some of its latest funding toward customer and sales support, including support for VARs, Garg said.

The latest round of funding follows the company's $15 million it raised in Series A funding led by General Catalyst and with participation from seed investor Clear Ventures last year. Guru Chahal, Partner at Lightspeed, has joined Steve Herrod, managing director at General Catalyst and Chris Rust, founder and general Partner at Clear Ventures on the board of directors, Arrcus said.