Forward Networks

Forward Networks is a Palo Alto-based company that creates network modeling software. The company was founded in July 2013 by Brandon Heller, Peyman Kazemian, Nikhil Handigol, and David Erickson, who met as PhD graduate students at Stanford University. Erickson and Heller serve as CEO and CTO of Forward Networks, respectively, and both serve on the company's board of directors.

Forward Networks' primary offering is a mathematically-accurate network modeling software called Forward Enterprise. Forward Enterprise documents, searches, verifies, and predicts the behavior of a client's network by creating a software copy of the entire network infrastructure for both on-premises software and the cloud. The software can map the topology of the network's environment, allowing the network team to find information such as verifying network intent and predicting a network's behavior.

Forward Enterprise also features a verification function that allows for the network to be continuously audited and sends alerts to team members in the event of non-compliance. The software is capable of utilizing the data from the network to predict issues, such as connectivity and security policy violations. It can be integrated with other software including Cisco, Arista, and Azure. In 2021, Forward Networks announced that its Enterprise software had won a Golden Globee award for network management at the 2021 IT World Awards.

Forward Networks has raised over $62 million over three funding rounds since 2014. The company most recently closed a $35 million series C round on October 8, 2019. The round was led by Goldman Sachs, and featured participation from A.Capital Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Threshold Ventures.