• NetBird is the leading European open source network security platform competing with legacy SSL VPN vendors such as Fortinet and Sophos
• The company has raised a $10M Series A funding round led by Pace Capital with participation from Nauta
• Nauta first backed NetBird in 2023 through our Pre Seed deep tech program, Nauta Labs

We’re excited to share the news that NetBird, the European open source network security platform, has today announced a $10M Series A round. The round is led by Pace Capital, with participation from Nauta alongside InReach Ventures and Antler. NetBird holds a special place in our portfolio as a graduate of Nauta Labs, our program focused on backing exceptional Pre Seed deep tech companies across Europe. Nauta first invested in NetBird in 2023 at Pre Seed (€1.1M), before co-leading the company’s €4M Seed round in 2024.

In an industry long shaped by heavy marketing, large sales organisations and growing frustration around VPN vulnerabilities, the Berlin-based company is taking a very different approach: open source, community-driven and exceptional user experience. As the only European solution competing with large, multi-billion-dollar SSL VP vendors such as Fortinet and Sophos, NetBird is becoming the clear option for organisations seeking secure remote access without unnecessary overhead or complexity.  

NetBird’s solution is designed to make networking disappear into the background, removing the need for exposed ports, centralised gateways or complex firewall configurations. This focus on simplicity has shaped the entire company’s growth model. Rather than relying on traditional marketing or sales teams, NetBird grows through organic adoption driven by engineers, DevOps teams and security practitioners who discover, test and champion the product from within their own organisations.

Misha Bragin, Co-Founder of NetBird, commented: “Enterprise network security has traditionally been gated behind long sales cycles and endless demos before teams can experience real value. We’ve changed that model. At NetBird, the code name for our GTM strategy is ‘Proof of Concept Starts at Home’ , meaning that users can try the product for free with minimal friction and experience its value first-hand in their private homelabs before rolling it out to production. Our community has become our strongest advocate, shaping the product far more than any traditional enterprise marketing ever could.”

Since launch, NetBird has gained adoption across industries and regions – ranging from managed service providers and high-growth startups to global enterprises and major European governmental organisations. Customers including Sport Alliance, netgo, Signicat and VIEW Group now rely on NetBird for secure network access across teams and infrastructure.

This funding round will enable NetBird to accelerate what is already working, expand its engineering and product teams, deliver features even faster and support a rapidly growing base of customers migrating away from traditional SSL VPN and firewall vendors.

Conor Scanlan, Associate Partner at Nauta, commented: “We're proud to have seen NetBird grow from an exciting Pre-Seed technical product - with really strong engagement from the GitHub community - to a globally competitive security leader. The traction demonstrates that modern organisations want security infrastructure which has been built with their needs in mind and with a community-first approach to adoption. Following this funding round, we cannot wait to see how NetBird's solutions mature further and the customer base continues to grow."

We launched Nauta Labs in 2021 to identify category-defining enterprise software, infrastructure software and deep tech companies at the Pre Seed stage in Europe. We invest at Pre Seed and work closely with founders on product, go-to-market and strategy to help them reach product-market fit and build the foundations for scale. NetBird’s journey from Nauta Labs to a fast-growing global network security challenger reflects the ambition of the program. Other graduates include Universal Quantum, a UK-based deep tech company developing the world’s first million-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer.