Over the past decade, we’ve seen software and technology have an imprint on every business. There are nearly five billion internet users in the world, and the rate at which our global GDP is driven by technology is accelerating briskly. Every industry is increasingly reliant on internet connectivity, but what happens when you ask the smartest engineer you know to set up internet infrastructure? They’ll tell you—and if you’re an engineer, you already know—the process is maddening. Businesses are forced to navigate weeks of back and forth with multiple vendors (installers, networking hardware companies, network and security management, IT support, and internet service providers) to get the internet up and running, to say nothing of ongoing maintenance.
Most companies no longer manage their own data centers—they spin up a cluster of servers with a click. There’s no reason local networks for commercial spaces shouldn’t be the same, with internet and Wi-Fi that’s as easy to switch on as water or electricity, and better still, that just works, instead of diverting valuable engineering resources.
Building better internet infrastructure for businesses
Meter provides internet infrastructure for businesses. Our full-stack approach combines hardware, software, and operations so that any company can seamlessly run on a reliable and modern network. We believe that owning the network in a space end-to-end results in a better experience. We design and build our own networking hardware—controllers, switches, and wireless access points. We manage the entire installation of a network (internet service provider procurement and management, network design, low-voltage cabling, IT server room build out). And once the network is up and running, our software allows us to efficiently manage the network.
We started Meter in 2015, developing the first versions of the hardware and our early software. We spent the first year and a half in China to learn everything we could about building our own networking hardware. In the years since, we rebuilt that hardware over and over to get it right, before turning our focus to software and operations. In 2019, we started to prove out our vertically integrated model by rolling out initial deployments in the spaces of some of the most sophisticated, technically capable, fast-growing companies.
Since 2019, we've continued to talk to countless IT professionals and companies, iterated on our product, and started to form our world-class team. Those initial deployments encompass a growing list of businesses that effectively run on Meter. Ambitious companies like Brex, Loom, Italic, and Stord already trust us to run their networks so they can focus on innovation. We’ve also partnered with Tishman Speyer and others in commercial real estate to help them establish internet and Wi-Fi as a standard utility in their buildings. Our long term ambition is to evolve Meter’s infrastructure into a turnkey utility—when a company moves into any commercial space, the internet and Wi-Fi just works.
Our most recent round of financing: $38 million Series B was led by Sequoia Capital (Ravi Gupta) and Lachy Groom, with participation from industry leaders such as Meraki co-founders (John Bicket and Sanjit Biswas), Diane Greene, Tobi Lütke, and WndrCo, among several others. To date, we’ve raised $50MM from some of the most notable and bright people in technology and business: Sam Altman, Jack Altman, Scott Belsky, Amy Brooks, Josh Buckley, Mathilde Collin, John and Patrick Collison, Cristina Cordova, Julia DeWahl and Dan Romero, Jared Erondu, Egon Durban, Daniel Gross, Reid Hoffman, Sam Hinkie, Sanjay Jha, Claire Hughes Johnson, Akshay Kothari, Kevin Kwok, Deep Nishar, Jay Parikh, Vivek Patel and Neha Sharma, Geoff Ralston, Dan Schulman, Zach Perret, David Solomon, Laks Srini, Claire Thielke, Andrew Wilson, Seth Winterroth, Jon Zieger, Julie Zhuo, Allen & Company, Greenoaks, and Tishman Speyer. We are fortunate to have these investors and advisors in helping Meter come to life.
Looking ahead
Our dependence on the internet to run businesses, develop AI, experience AR or the metaverse, build decentralized networks, power autonomous manufacturing and fulfillment facilities, run smart cities, and protect our information and national security will only increase in the future. We believe that the speed, performance, and security of internet infrastructure is critical to the integrity of what we produce today and tomorrow.
All of us and every business will use the internet more than we currently do. Our aim is to make secure enterprise-grade networks more accessible, and to help innovative organizations get and stay online seamlessly. By building better infrastructure, we want to help increase productivity, by even two percent, for a large swath of businesses, leading to a broader impact.
Our capital plans are clear: we plan to scale our team, meet the growing demand for our products, and continue to design software solutions that make internet infrastructure faster, easier, and more secure. We’re also excited about building new applications and software on top of our stack. If you’d like to help us establish better internet infrastructure, we’re looking for kind and ambitious people to join our team. We’re building for the long term, and we’re just getting started.