NetBird announces $10M Series A to expand open source VPN alternative

NetBird, an open-source network security platform built on product-led adoption, has closed a $10 million Series A round led by Pace Capital, with participation from Nauta Capital, InReach Ventures, and Antler.

NetBird is a Berlin-based software company developing an open-source Zero Trust network security platform that enables secure and cost-effective private networking for organisations of all sizes. Since its launch on GitHub in 2021, the platform has been adopted by companies across multiple industries seeking modern solutions for connecting remote employees and distributed infrastructure.

In a market largely shaped by traditional sales models, extensive marketing, and closed-source technologies, NetBird follows a more transparent and user-focused approach. Its growth is driven by open-source development, community engagement, and a strong emphasis on usability, particularly as organisations look for alternatives to VPN solutions that require frequent security updates and are associated with recurring security vulnerabilities.

European digital sovereignty also remains an important part of NetBird’s long-term strategy, as demand grows for security infrastructure developed within Europe.

The platform reduces the operational complexity of network management by eliminating the need for port configuration, centralised gateways, and complex firewall rules. This design philosophy also informs the company’s growth strategy. NetBird relies primarily on organic adoption, supported by engineers, DevOps teams, and security professionals who evaluate and deploy the platform within their environments and later advocate for broader adoption inside their organisations.

Misha Bragin, co-founder of NetBird, noted that enterprise network security has traditionally been constrained by long sales cycles and extensive product demonstrations before teams can experience real value:

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,

NetBird’s customer base includes managed service providers, technology companies, large enterprises, and public sector organisations. Customers such as Sport Alliance, netgo, Signicat, and VIEW Group use the platform to manage secure connectivity across teams and infrastructure.

The new funding will support continued investment in engineering and product development, expansion of use cases, and additional support for the company’s growing user community, as well as further global scaling of the platform.