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Why we’re backing NetBox Labs to build the network and infra platform management of the future
At NGP Capital, we are committed to backing entrepreneurs who are building the foundational infrastructure for a digitized world. The networks and infrastructures that underpin our economy are growing exponentially more complex, and the tools to manage them have not kept pace. That’s why we are thrilled to announce that we are leading NetBox Labs’ $35M Series B funding round.
NetBox Labs is transforming the network and infrastructure management market with its open-source platform, NetBox, which serves as the dominant source of truth for operating, automating, understanding, and securing digital infrastructure. By unifying previously siloed data sources and leveraging a passionate community of tens of thousands of users, NetBox Labs is building the de facto standard for modern network and infrastructure management.
The problem: Infrastructure management at a breaking point
Enterprises today face a complex landscape of on-premise, hybrid-cloud environments, edge deployments, and massive numbers of interconnected devices. Yet the method for managing these assets has not evolved. Trying to track this complexity with spreadsheets and outdated databases is not only inefficient, but it’s also a direct threat to security and uptime. Even today, an estimated 67% of networking activities are still performed manually.
The options available to network and infrastructure engineers are limited. Network equipment vendors like Cisco, Juniper, and VMware provide solutions that only address their proprietary environments, making it challenging to scale up in environments where multiple vendors' products co-exist and interoperate with each other. Proprietary vendor-neutral offerings such as Infoblox, Solarwinds, and Selector AI narrowly focus on one use case - solving either a network inventory, automation, or observability problem, without the full suite of capabilities that engineers need. Manual methods and limited-capability solutions create enormous pressure on the infrastructure teams, which leads to errors, outages, and security vulnerabilities.
The massive opportunity for modern infrastructure management
The growth of data centers, especially those powered by massive GPU farms, and the increased need for automation are creating a massive market opportunity. The Network Management market is projected to grow from $28 billion today to over $110 billion by 20341 with network automation being one of the fastest-growing segments. Gartner predicts that by 2026, 30% of enterprises will automate more than half of their network management, representing a sharp increase from the current level of less than 10% in 2023.
NetBox Labs is leading the charge with a modern, API-first approach built for this new era of networking.
NetBox: A differentiated platform built on an open-source flywheel
NetBox Labs stands out in a crowded market by replacing legacy tools and homegrown systems with a unified and extensible platform. Its competitive advantage is built on three core pillars:
- The De Facto Standard: NetBox’s open-source software (OSS) is already the industry’s most trusted Network Source of Truth (NSoT), with over 20,000 users and 18K GitHub stars. This massive, pre-built community de-risks product-market fit and creates a powerful flywheel, driving over 50% of the company's sales pipeline through inbound, organic interest.
- A Unified Data Model for All Aspects of Network Management: Unlike point solutions that address only one aspect of the puzzle, NetBox provides a holistic view of the entire network—from physical racks and cables to virtual IP addresses and VLANs—all in one place. At the same time, the pervasiveness of NetBox’s data model in real deployments creates tremendous market leverage as the foundation to accelerate innovation, streamline operations, unlock AI use cases, and guarantee adherence to critical performance and security standards across every deployment.
- Extensibility as a Platform: NetBox was designed to be a platform from day one. Its powerful plugin framework and API-first approach have fostered a vibrant ecosystem of hundreds of extensions and integrations built by the community, alongside NetBox Labs’ rapidly growing array of official supported integrations into vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, VMWare, ServiceNow, and more. This allows customers to tailor NetBox to their specific needs, a level of flexibility that closed, proprietary systems cannot match.
In addition to the open-source core, NetBox Labs has developed a suite of commercial products, including a managed NetBox Cloud offering and powerful add-on products for network and infrastructure discovery and assurance, that provide users with many compelling reasons to upgrade.

The virtuous flywheel is clear: free adoption → authoritative data → upsell to Cloud, Assurance, and future AI modules → reinvest in OSS, widening NetBox’s moat over time.
The team: A story of execution and experience
Our conviction in NetBox Labs is rooted in its proven execution and the strength of its team. This isn't their first success story. The company is led by CEO Kris Beevers and a core group of executives who previously scaled NS1 to a successful acquisition by IBM. They are joined by Chief NetBox Officer Jeremy Stretch, the original creator of NetBox, who is revered by network engineers worldwide. The broader leadership team of former NS1 executives blends deep technical chops with go-to-market muscle. The team's ability to retain top talent from their previous venture speaks volumes about their leadership.
Our shared vision for the future
NGP’s Convergence thesis focuses on creating value in the physical world through the use of software and AI. Today’s massive AI-powered Data centers and the GPU and CPU networks they contain are the ultimate expression of physical assets that are transforming how we receive, process, and act on information. NetBox Labs’ platform enables the scaling and reliability of data centers and networks through automation - enabling today’s infrastructure teams to realize their fullest potential.
With this new funding, NetBox Labs will accelerate its mission to make it easier to build and manage complex networks and infrastructure.
Our role goes beyond capital. We will leverage our global network and deep enterprise expertise to help Kris and his team scale their go-to-market efforts and solidify their position as the category-defining leader in network and infrastructure management.
We believe we are in the early innings of a significant shift toward automated, data-driven infrastructure operations. The journey of NetBox Labs is a prime example of the kind of transformative company we aim to partner with, and we are excited to be on this journey with the team.
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1 Figures compiled from Grandview Research, ResearchandMarkets, and Marketandmarkets industry reports.