Six Networking Startups to Watch

Chipmaker Marvell’s $1.1 billion acquisition last week of Innovium, a chip startup that competes with networking chip behemoth Broadcom, signaled a major shift in the chip market. After years in which investors had shied away from putting money into the networking sector, nervous about taking on Broadcom, attitudes have changed.

A variety of startups have emerged that are focusing on different aspects of the networking sector—many in the software arena, where Broadcom isn’t a major competitor. Several have chosen to focus on network operating system software, which ensures that critical applications perform well in periods of heavy traffic. Others sell chips and software that move networking functions into servers, providing a cost-effective way for large companies to scale up capacity. A couple have developed chips—Innovium was one—that compete directly with Broadcom’s.

Many of these startups could be acquisition candidates for chip giant Intel as it expands its networking products, cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, telecom giants like AT&T or networking companies like Cisco Systems. Below we take a look at half a dozen such startups, including Pensando Systems, Aviatrix and others.