Meter Inc., a startup providing internet infrastructure to businesses, today said it has raised $35 million in new funding in a round led by OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman and early Stripe employee and notable investor Lachy Groom to propel growth and development across the company.

Founded in 2015, Meter provides internet infrastructure for businesses, building enterprise-grade networks that it says are faster, more accessible and more secure. The company’s network-as-a-service solution offers networking teams a user-friendly experience for network deployment and management.

Meter offers simplified automation that provides visibility, configurability and interoperability, taking care of network design, deployment and management similarly to how Amazon Web Services Inc. handles underlying infrastructure for developers. Doing so allows information technology teams to concentrate on refining and innovating network services, accelerating business growth without getting stuck in operational intricacies.

The company’s cloud-managed dashboard, which acts as a “digital twin” for routing, switching, wireless, security, domain name system security, virtual private networks and software-defined wide-area networks, allows customers to schedule maintenance, fine-tune configurations and obtain a holistic view of their network. Meter’s service also allows customers to quickly scale their network operations with reduced overhead costs through a vertically integrated approach.

Meter develops proprietary hardware, firmware and software designed to streamline end-to-end operations, including internet service provider procurement and management, site surveys, network design, deployment, hardware upgrades and ongoing management and maintenance.

The company has seen strong growth and powers customers in over 125 cities across 31 states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada. Annual recurring revenue has doubled over the last year, off an undisclosed based. Meter says it has customers across retail, logistics, manufacturing, education, artificial intelligence, financial services, healthcare, life sciences and security.

Joining Altman and Groom in the funding round were Sequoia Capital Inc., Meraki Inc. co-founders John Bicket and Sanjit Biswas and VMware Inc. founder Diane Greene.

“Every industry relies more and more on internet connectivity,” Groom said in a statement. “It’s still too costly and too time-consuming for businesses to get secure and reliable internet infrastructure. Meter is solving a painful problem by reimagining the connectivity stack from the ground up.”

Including the new funding, Meter has raised $84 million to date.

Image: Meter