Safety startup OneLayer has $28 million of recent funding, and an enormous plan to increase additional into Europe and Latin America as industrial enterprises go all-in on non-public 5G, and prioritize safety from the beginning. It’s a totally different market even from simply a few years in the past, it says – when enterprises had been nonetheless kicking the tires on non-public 5G, and safety was an afterthought. Right here, the agency explains how the market has modified, and why safety is in such demand.
In sum – what to know:
In two years – OneLayer is chasing international enlargement, following good traction within the U.S.; it expects enterprise take-up with all non-public 5G deployment-types, from edge-based to hybrid to digital.
In 5 years – the agency will likely be “synonymous” with non-public 5G, it reckons – simply as “nobody builds” enterprise IT with out an entry management layer, nobody will construct non-public 5G “with out OneLayer”.
Trade ache – non-public 5G deployments lack of system visibility and safety integration; clients have moved in response to embed OneLayer earlier into their community blueprints, says the agency.
US-Israeli non-public 5G safety startup OneLayer has simply secured $28 million in a Sequence A spherical to fund new go-to-market and research-and-development exercise. The spherical – led by Maor Investments, with assist from McRock Capital, Chevron Expertise Ventures and present backers – comes as non-public LTE and personal 5G deployments speed up throughout industrial verticals, the place system safety and management are crucial to operations, usually throughout a number of websites in a number of geographies.
OneLayer’s mission is to “rework any mobile community from an operational silo into a part of the enterprise setting”, says Dave Mor, co-founder and chief government on the agency – in dialog with RCR Wi-fi under. With the brand new funds, the corporate will search to increase its footprint – additional in North America, the place it already has a head of steam, and extra urgently in Europe and Latin America. Its pitch is straightforward: critical-grade system safety in critical-grade mobile networks in critical-grade industrial operations.
Greater than this, it expects to be the go-to system safety resolution for any-style non-public LTE/5G community. Mor says: “Our resolution will fulfill any enterprise mobile deployment mannequin… from totally owned, to hybrid to digital.” Its five-year horizon sounds extra audacious:to be “synonymous with mobile system safety within the enterprise area” – a foundational layer akin to the entry management layer in IP networks, it suggests. Mor asserts: “Simply as nobody builds an enterprise IP community with out an entry management layer, nobody builds a non-public 5G community with out OneLayer.”
The conversational narrative, set out under as a full Q&A with Mor, additionally discusses the broader market. Enterprises are wrestling much less with questions concerning the worth (even the right perform) of personal 5G, and extra with the best way to make the know-how work for them – and the best way to safe it within the course of. It really works as a great state-of-the-market commentary, even regardless of the hook about $28 million of recent development plans. The purpose for OneLayer is that Trade 4.0 needs to safe industrial networks – now – and never simply to check them in a lab.
With the funding in hand, OneLayer is doubling down: hiring throughout engineering, gross sales, advertising and operations; positioning regionally within the U.S., Europe and Latin America; increasing its partnerships with distributors similar to Ericsson and Nokia; and embedding its software program upstream in enterprise private-cellular initiatives moderately than as a later add-on. The subsequent interval is about scaling up; the next interval is about consolidating – as the most important safety participant within the international non-public 5G recreation. Right here’s the interview; all of the responses are from Mor (pictured under, proper).
The place will OneLayer be in two years, 5 years? What’s the plan?
“OneLayer is fulfilling a wanted function within the {industry} and fixing actual buyer pains round safety and operations. Our mission is to remodel any mobile community from an operational silo into a part of the enterprise setting. Within the coming two years our focus is particularly on: supporting mission crucial (OT) networks with the system safety, observability, and orchestration to go reside and run easily; increasing additional into our key geographies within the US, Latin America, and Europe; and supporting our clients throughout any community mannequin.
“Our resolution will fulfill any enterprise mobile deployment mannequin (as a part of our mission) from totally owned, to hybrid to digital (public APN or future slice). The {industry} wants a regular to depend on, and within the subsequent two years, our objective is to solidify that management place by changing into embedded into each main non-public mobile ecosystem, whether or not enterprises are constructing with Ericsson, Nokia, or different core distributors – together with public suppliers worldwide.
“In 5 years, we count on OneLayer to be synonymous with mobile system safety within the enterprise area – [as] an integral a part of how organizations design, deploy, and function their non-public networks. We’ll attain a degree the place, simply as nobody builds an enterprise IP community with out an entry management layer, nobody builds a non-public 5G community with out OneLayer securing the gadgets that connect with it. To succeed in our objectives, we’re working repeatedly to establish and remedy extra of our clients’ issues as they scale their networks in direction of international rollouts.”
Clarify just a little extra about your go-to-market ambitions?
“We’re seeing actual ache available in the market round each safety and operations. Within the case of safety, we’ve seen deployments delayed by years as a result of community groups had not introduced safety into the method early, after which needed to work backwards to rearchitect their networks. We all know particularly of some factories that gained’t get safety approval to function their networks till OneLayer is deployed; and now we have change into mandated throughout deployments in certainly one of our greatest clients.
“Within the case of operations, securely onboarding gadgets at scale to satisfy organizational wants – notably in utilities – is an ongoing problem. The demand in the present day is by far larger than our means to assist, and we’re working exhausting to shut this hole whereas not compromising on our supply high quality, or on assist for our present clients. This is the reason we raised our Sequence A spherical – the necessity within the {industry} is obvious.
“We’re seeing some modifications available in the market – specifically, the timing of the OneLayer (software program / licence) buy. Previously we had been bought after a community’s operational deployment. Nonetheless, the {industry} is discovering that the safety and operational challenges that we remedy must be addressed a lot earlier within the deployment cycle. We’re seeing clients shifting the acquisition of OneLayer earlier, to put up community POC and, in lots of circumstances, to creating OneLayer part of their elementary community blueprint.
“Corporations now ask to purchase OneLayer as a part of their community crucial parts bundle: community core, radios, routers, SIM playing cards and OneLayer. Our main core community companions have obliged us, and we’re honored by their recognition and inclusion of OneLayer as a part of their unique community providing. These modifications are mirrored in our development – we loved six-times development in 2024 and three-times development this yr, supported by a robust buyer pipeline extending by way of 2026.
“We’ve secured greater than 20 enterprise clients throughout key industries, from energy utilities and airports to manufacturing and mining. OneLayer has additionally expanded throughout North America, Latin America, and Europe, with deployments already reside in a number of areas. Our companions embrace {industry} titans similar to Ericsson and Nokia, and we not too long ago expanded our affect inside Fortune 100 manufacturing websites, with new deployments throughout a number of amenities. Wanting forward, we’re targeted on scaling by way of partnerships, increasing our staff, and coming into new markets, each geographically and vertically.”
Why has there been such development – when it comes to the commercial local weather, moderately than the tech functionality?
“The 5G {industry} crossed the chasm almost about community buy. Previously networks had been deployed on the ‘innovation finances’, however in the present day that is a part of the networking staff, and is essential to hitting their modernization objectives. Previously the principle query for enterprises was: will the community work? Now they know, and the query is totally different. Now they ask: what do I have to do to make it work for my setting? Now the entire gaps that OneLayer solves are entrance and heart for enterprise community and safety groups. So the most important purpose for our development is that we’re fixing actual issues.
“Once we based OneLayer we realized that connectivity was one of many greatest limitations to industrial modernization. So we began by speaking to early adopters of enterprise and industrial 5G – individuals who had been truly making an attempt to run manufacturing networks. All of them hit the identical wall: visibility, system identification, and coverage enforcement. You possibly can’t run mission-critical workloads on 5G should you can’t establish, repeatedly monitor, and belief each system. We constructed OneLayer to resolve that – for any system, throughout any core, and in a easy, cost-effective approach. That’s why we’ve seen such robust traction: we constructed the proper product for an actual ache level.”
What are the challenges for OneLayer to ship on its ambition?
“Our important problem is maintaining with the tempo of demand. We’re fixing challenges confronted by enterprises throughout the globe, and we have to meet that demand whereas sustaining glorious service for our present clients. Additionally it is vital to notice that mobile and enterprise networks are every individually advanced domains, and they’re much extra advanced when mixed. The power to maintain offering an enterprise expertise and resolution whereas dealing with mobile know-how is much from trivial.
“For instance, even correctly figuring out a tool in a mobile setting is sophisticated. It’s because conventional mobile system identifiers, similar to SIM playing cards and IMEIs, are weak identifiers inside an enterprise context. They’re high quality for a telco community to invoice a subscriber, however they lack the depth and suppleness required by enterprises to regulate their community correctly. SIM playing cards might be swapped – and the way will your community know? All of your community will know is the connection standing, and an IP handle.
“IMEIs are restricted to the modem, which could possibly be a match one for a number of totally different system SKUs. IMEIs can be spoofed. So, from an enterprise perspective, simply with the ability to belief that they know what a tool is, and that they may be capable to persistently establish and belief that system is sophisticated.
“OneLayer has labored exhausting to resolve this downside, and we do it by integrating instantly with the community core, utilizing SPAN to watch connect requests, radio capabilities, handovers and different crucial mobile info. By analyzing the attributes of those messages, OneLayer will get details about a tool’s elements, capabilities, and actions. OneLayer then correlates all system knowledge to create a singular, correct ONEID to assign to every system. This complete system fingerprint permits OneLayer to trace every system holistically, moderately than being reliant on SIM numbers and IMEIs. It additionally permits OneLayer to offer ‘dynamic system context’ – monitoring for altering identifiers and different behavioral anomalies which will point out a compromised or misconfigured system.
“This is only one instance of the advanced challenges confronted by our clients, however it’s on the core of what we do. Understanding and with the ability to ship on identification to this stage is crucial to fixing the issues enterprises face when deploying 5G. Every little thing else builds on high of it: entry management, segmentation, menace detection and response, and the flexibility to take motion based mostly on these insights. In the long run bridging the hole between OT and IT environments can’t be achieved with out the crucial info supplied through system visibility and context.”
Is AI driving curiosity in 5G – and in addition driving curiosity in OneLayer? Clarify the circulate.
“AI is a significant driver of personal 5G adoption, and by extension, it drives curiosity in OneLayer. The growing want to attach edge gadgets to AI algorithms in actual time operations requires extremely dependable connectivity, and belief within the supply that knowledge is being gathered from. This defines a necessity amongst community house owners to offer correct guardrails and visibility into what truly occurred on the community whenever you allow AI knowledge connectivity. This want will additional drive clients to OneLayer.”
Which verticals do you’ve gotten most traction with? Are these the identical as the usual non-public 5G verticals, or totally different and private – and why?
“Our strongest traction aligns instantly with the core non-public 5G verticals – utilities, manufacturing, ports, airports, oil and gasoline, and mining. These are industries the place connectivity is mission-critical and the place conventional IT instruments don’t match OT environments. What differentiates us is our means to bridge IT and OT: securing each legacy industrial gadgets and new mobile endpoints underneath one framework.”
Will the OneLayer headcount change with the brand new funding? Has it modified?
“Completely. Since securing the spherical we’ve been hiring throughout engineering, gross sales, advertising, and operations. We’re particularly trying to double the dimensions of the corporate, and in some departments triple our headcount to assist development. We’re constructing regional groups within the U.S., Europe, and Latin America to assist rising demand. OneLayer is a sales-led firm with high-touch enterprise engagements, so having folks near clients and companions is crucial.
What’s subsequent?
“With this new funding, we’re specializing in three key priorities: accelerating go-to-market development by increasing our partnerships with extra enterprises which can be able to safe their 5G networks; increasing product capabilities [by] repeatedly enhancing the platform to resolve our clients’ most important operational challenges; and scaling worldwide enlargement throughout Latin America and Europe, after robust development in North America.
Demand is surging, and we’re scaling as much as meet this rising want, head-on. We’re including new capabilities for automation, analytics, and system orchestration – all whereas sustaining the industry-leading requirements that outline our platform. And we’re rising our attain. The challenges our clients face, particularly within the visibility, safety, and administration of linked gadgets, are international, and we’re prepared to satisfy them wherever they’re.”
