SD-WAN provider Aryaka closed a $50 million Series F led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing, bringing the vendor’s total funding to $184 million.

As the SD-WAN market grows and consolidates (and grows some more), Aryaka is focused on scaling its global growth rather than on going forward as an acquisition target or public company, says Aryaka CEO Matt Carter. “The Series F funding from a marquee investor allows us to be nimble and focus on the right business metrics in this dynamic market.”

Specifically, the growth of its business operations refers to scaling out its sales and go-to-market initiatives, accelerating its innovation, and building its brand awareness efforts. The new funding will also be used to grow its revenues and hire more personnel across all functions, he says.

Aryaka differentiates itself in this crowded market by offering its own technology stack, says Carter. This includes customer premises equipment, software and hardware for WAN optimization, network security, multicloud connectivity, automation and orchestration, and a distributed Layer 2 fully-meshed point of presence.

“This unique architecture built with management from the ground up allows us to deliver end-to-end connectivity globally with highly predictable performance,” he said. “Most other vendors are overlay SD-WAN players leveraging the internet-only option, or operators that take technology stacks from vendors and stitch them together to offer a managed SD-WAN. We’re not constrained by having either the technology stack or the global network connectivity.”

The fully managed offering is another aspect that sets the company apart and it’s something that Carter says he’s seeing SD-WAN customers migrate toward.

“We really take the ownership to absolve complexity for our customers and distribute simplicity across their global locations,” said Carter. “It allows them to innovate faster and focus on their core business. The WAN is no longer a distraction for them; not a speed bump on their move to a multicloud operational model.”

In the past year, Aryaka has made a number of changes to expand its business, including the hiring of three c-suite executives. The company named Karen Freitag as chief revenue officer, Michelle Owczarzak as CTO, and Shashi Kiran as CMO. Carter was appointed as CEO in September 2018.

This past year has also been marked by updates to Aryaka's architecture stack that aim to make it easier to deliver multiple services as a consumable model, and the company says more updates are coming soon.

Aryaka was ranked the third largest SD-WAN vendor in IHS Markit’s most recent Data Center Network Equipment Tracker. The research firm said that the company earned $41.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, a 13% increase from the previous quarter and a 69% increase year-over-year.

In the Series F round, Goldman Sachs joined existing investors Trinity Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, Presidio Ventures, Third Point Ventures, and DTCP. Aryaka also added Matthew Dorr, growth equity investor and VP at Goldman Sachs, to its board of directors. Michael Kondoleon, VP of the special situations group at Goldman Sachs, was named as an observer on the board.