NetBird, a Berlin-based company building an open-source alternative to traditional VPN and remote-access tools, has secured €8.5 million in Series A funding.
The round values the company for its next phase of growth as it expands across Europe and strengthens its position as a locally built security infrastructure provider.
The investment was led by Pace Capital, with participation from Nauta Capital, InReach Ventures, and Antler.
Building a modern alternative to legacy VPN infrastructure
As remote and hybrid work become standard, many organisations still depend on legacy VPN and firewall setups that were not designed for distributed teams or cloud-native environments. These systems often introduce complexity, single points of failure, and poor user experience.
NetBird addresses this gap with a Zero Trust networking platform built on WireGuard-based overlay networking. Instead of relying on central gateways and static configurations, NetBird enables secure, software-defined connectivity between users, devices, and infrastructure without exposing networks to unnecessary risk.
The platform combines Zero Trust Network Access with simplified deployment, removing the need for complex firewall rules, port forwarding, or traditional VPN concentrators.
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Open-source adoption driven by engineers, not sales cycles
NetBird has grown primarily through organic adoption rather than enterprise sales-led distribution. The company’s open-source approach, combined with self-hosted deployment options, has resonated strongly with network engineers, DevOps teams, and security practitioners.
Many users first experiment with NetBird in personal lab environments before advocating for its adoption inside their organisations. This bottom-up usage model has allowed NetBird to replace entire VPN stacks once teams experience the platform’s performance and simplicity firsthand.
According to the company, engineers often validate the software independently long before it reaches procurement or IT leadership, turning early users into internal champions.
Investor confidence in technical depth and community traction
At Pace Capital, the investment thesis focused on the company’s technical execution and the quality of its adoption rather than top-down sales metrics.
Security infrastructure needs to be modular, open, and aligned with how teams actually operate today. NetBird stands out as a foundational layer that engineers genuinely want to use, said Tina He, who led the investment at Pace Capital.
She added that many teams initially deployed NetBird alongside existing systems, then gradually phased out their entire VPN infrastructure.
Scaling product development and customer migrations
Founded in 2021 by Misha Bragin and Maycon Santos, the company plans to use the new funding to grow its engineering and product teams, enhance platform capabilities, and support larger customer migrations away from legacy SSL VPN and firewall products.
The company is already helping organisations transition from established vendors such as Sophos, SonicWall, and Fortinet, replacing these systems with a simpler Zero Trust architecture.
According to Santos, the funding will allow NetBird to accelerate these migrations at a much larger scale while continuing to focus on reliability and ease of use.
A European-first approach to network security
NetBird positions itself as a European-built alternative in a market dominated by US-based security vendors. With increasing attention on digital sovereignty, data control, and infrastructure independence, the company aims to offer organisations a locally developed option for modern remote access and secure networking.
Following its €4 million Seed round in 2024, NetBird’s platform is now used across a wide range of industries, including managed service providers, fast-growing startups, large enterprises, and European public-sector organisations. Customers include Sport Alliance, netgo, Signicat, and VIEW Group.
About NetBird
NetBird is an open-source Zero Trust networking platform built on WireGuard technology. It enables organisations and individuals to create secure private networks without complex configuration, eliminating traditional VPN gateways and firewall dependencies. Designed for modern distributed environments, NetBird delivers simple, scalable, and resilient network security for teams of all sizes.
