Safety startup OneLayer has $28 million of latest funding, and a giant 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 world growth, 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 can 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”.
Business ache – non-public 5G deployments lack of machine 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 machine safety and management are vital to operations, typically 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 atmosphere”, says Dave Mor, co-founder and chief govt on the agency – in dialog with RCR Wi-fi beneath. 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 machine safety in critical-grade mobile networks in critical-grade industrial operations.
Greater than this, it expects to be the go-to machine safety answer for any-style non-public LTE/5G community. Mor says: “Our answer 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 machine safety within the enterprise house” – 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 beneath as a full Q&A with Mor, additionally discusses the broader market. Enterprises are wrestling much less with questions in regards to the worth (even the right operate) of personal 5G, and extra with the way to make the know-how work for them – and the way to safe it within the course of. It really works as a very good state-of-the-market commentary, even regardless of the hook about $28 million of latest progress plans. The purpose for OneLayer is that Business 4.0 desires 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 corresponding to Ericsson and Nokia; and embedding its software program upstream in enterprise private-cellular initiatives reasonably than as a later add-on. The subsequent interval is about scaling up; the following interval is about consolidating – as the largest safety participant within the world non-public 5G sport. Right here’s the interview; all of the responses are from Mor (pictured beneath, proper).
The place will OneLayer be in two years, 5 years? What’s the plan?
“OneLayer is fulfilling a wanted position 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 atmosphere. Within the coming two years our focus is particularly on: supporting mission vital (OT) networks with the machine safety, observability, and orchestration to go stay 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 answer 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 turning 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 anticipate OneLayer to be synonymous with mobile machine safety within the enterprise house – [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 units that connect with it. To achieve our targets, we’re working constantly to establish and resolve extra of our clients’ issues as they scale their networks in the direction of world rollouts.”
Clarify a bit of extra about your go-to-market ambitions?
“We’re seeing actual ache out there 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 we’ve got turn into mandated throughout deployments in one among our greatest clients.
“Within the case of operations, securely onboarding units at scale to satisfy organizational wants – notably in utilities – is an ongoing problem. The demand at present is by far greater than our skill to assist, and we’re working arduous to shut this hole whereas not compromising on our supply high quality, or on assist for our present clients. Because of this we raised our Sequence A spherical – the necessity within the {industry} is obvious.
“We’re seeing some adjustments out there – particularly, the timing of the OneLayer (software program / licence) buy. Previously we had been bought after a community’s operational deployment. Nevertheless, the {industry} is discovering that the safety and operational challenges that we resolve needs to be addressed a lot earlier within the deployment cycle. We’re seeing clients shifting the acquisition of OneLayer earlier, to submit community POC and, in lots of circumstances, to creating OneLayer part of their basic community blueprint.
“Corporations now ask to purchase OneLayer as a part of their community vital parts package deal: 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 authentic community providing. These adjustments are mirrored in our progress – we loved six-times progress in 2024 and three-times progress this yr, supported by a powerful 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 stay in a number of areas. Our companions embrace {industry} titans corresponding to Ericsson and Nokia, and we just lately expanded our impression inside Fortune 100 manufacturing websites, with new deployments throughout a number of amenities. Wanting forward, we’re centered on scaling by way of partnerships, increasing our staff, and getting into new markets, each geographically and vertically.”
Why has there been such progress – by way of the economic local weather, reasonably than the tech functionality?
“The 5G {industry} crossed the chasm with reference to community buy. Previously networks had been deployed on the ‘innovation funds’, however at present that is a part of the networking staff, and is vital to hitting their modernization targets. 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 must do to make it work for my atmosphere? Now all the gaps that OneLayer solves are entrance and heart for enterprise community and safety groups. So the largest purpose for our progress is that we’re fixing actual issues.
“After 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 attempting to run manufacturing networks. All of them hit the identical wall: visibility, machine identification, and coverage enforcement. You may’t run mission-critical workloads on 5G if you happen to can’t establish, constantly monitor, and belief each machine. We constructed OneLayer to unravel that – for any machine, throughout any core, and in a easy, cost-effective method. That’s why we’ve seen such sturdy traction: we constructed the best product for an actual ache level.”
What are the challenges for OneLayer to ship on its ambition?
“Our principal 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 wonderful service for our present clients. Additionally it is essential to notice that mobile and enterprise networks are every individually complicated domains, and they’re much extra complicated when mixed. The power to maintain offering an enterprise expertise and answer whereas dealing with mobile know-how is way from trivial.
“For instance, even correctly figuring out a tool in a mobile atmosphere is difficult. It is because conventional mobile machine identifiers, corresponding to SIM playing cards and IMEIs, are weak identifiers inside an enterprise context. They’re superb for a telco community to invoice a subscriber, however they lack the depth and adaptability required by enterprises to manage their community correctly. SIM playing cards will be swapped – and the way will your community know? All of your community will know is the connection standing, and an IP deal with.
“IMEIs are restricted to the modem, which could possibly be a match one for a number of totally different machine SKUs. IMEIs may also be spoofed. So, from an enterprise perspective, simply with the ability to belief that they know what a tool is, and that they’ll have the ability to persistently establish and belief that machine is difficult.
“OneLayer has labored arduous to unravel this drawback, and we do it by integrating immediately with the community core, utilizing SPAN to observe connect requests, radio capabilities, handovers and different vital mobile data. By analyzing the attributes of those messages, OneLayer will get details about a tool’s elements, capabilities, and actions. OneLayer then correlates all machine information to create a novel, correct ONEID to assign to every machine. This complete machine fingerprint allows OneLayer to trace every machine holistically, reasonably than being reliant on SIM numbers and IMEIs. It additionally allows OneLayer to supply ‘dynamic machine context’ – monitoring for altering identifiers and different behavioral anomalies which will point out a compromised or misconfigured machine.
“This is only one instance of the complicated 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 vital to fixing the issues enterprises face when deploying 5G. All the things else builds on prime of it: entry management, segmentation, menace detection and response, and the power 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 vital data offered through machine visibility and context.”
Is AI driving curiosity in 5G – and likewise driving curiosity in OneLayer? Clarify the circulation.
“AI is a significant driver of personal 5G adoption, and by extension, it drives curiosity in OneLayer. The growing want to attach edge units to AI algorithms in actual time operations requires extremely dependable connectivity, and belief within the supply that information is being gathered from. This defines a necessity amongst community house owners to supply correct guardrails and visibility into what truly occurred on the community while you allow AI information connectivity. This want will additional drive clients to OneLayer.”
Which verticals do you have got 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 immediately with the core non-public 5G verticals – utilities, manufacturing, ports, airports, oil and fuel, 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 skill to bridge IT and OT: securing each legacy industrial units 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 scale of the corporate, and in some departments triple our headcount to assist progress. 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 vital.
What’s subsequent?
“With this new funding, we’re specializing in three key priorities: accelerating go-to-market progress by increasing our partnerships with further enterprises which can be able to safe their 5G networks; increasing product capabilities [by] constantly enhancing the platform to unravel our clients’ most crucial operational challenges; and scaling worldwide growth throughout Latin America and Europe, after sturdy progress 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 machine 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 units, are world, and we’re prepared to satisfy them wherever they’re.”
