Security startup OneLayer has $28 million of new funding, and a big plan to expand further into Europe and Latin America as industrial enterprises go all-in on private 5G, and prioritize security from the start. It is a different market even from just a couple of years ago, it says – when enterprises were still kicking the tires on private 5G, and security was an afterthought. Here, the firm explains how the market has changed, and why security is in such demand.
In sum – what to know:
In two years – OneLayer is chasing global expansion, following good traction in the U.S.; it expects enterprise take-up with all private 5G deployment-types, from edge-based to hybrid to virtual.
In five years – the firm will be “synonymous” with private 5G, it reckons – just as “no one builds” enterprise IT without an access control layer, no one will build private 5G “without OneLayer”.
Industry pain – private 5G deployments lack of device visibility and security integration; customers have moved in response to embed OneLayer earlier into their network blueprints, says the firm.
US-Israeli private 5G security startup OneLayer has just secured $28 million in a Series A round to fund new go-to-market and research-and-development activity. The round – led by Maor Investments, with support from McRock Capital, Chevron Technology Ventures and existing backers – comes as private LTE and private 5G deployments accelerate across industrial verticals, where device security and control are critical to operations, often across multiple sites in multiple geographies.
OneLayer’s mission is to “transform any cellular network from an operational silo into part of the enterprise environment”, says Dave Mor, co-founder and chief executive at the firm – in conversation with RCR Wireless below. With the new funds, the company will seek to expand its footprint – further in North America, where it already has a head of steam, and more urgently in Europe and Latin America. Its pitch is simple: critical-grade device security in critical-grade cellular networks in critical-grade industrial operations.
More than this, it expects to be the go-to device security solution for any-style private LTE/5G network. Mor says: “Our solution will satisfy any enterprise cellular deployment model… from fully owned, to hybrid to virtual.” Its five-year horizon sounds more audacious:to be “synonymous with cellular device security in the enterprise space” – a foundational layer akin to the access control layer in IP networks, it suggests. Mor asserts: “Just as no one builds an enterprise IP network without an access control layer, no one builds a private 5G network without OneLayer.”
The conversational narrative, set out below as a full Q&A with Mor, also discusses the broader market. Enterprises are wrestling less with questions about the value (even the proper function) of private 5G, and more with how to make the technology work for them – and how to secure it in the process. It works as a good state-of-the-market commentary, even despite the hook about $28 million of new growth plans. The point for OneLayer is that Industry 4.0 wants to secure commercial networks – now – and not just to test them in a lab.
With the funding in hand, OneLayer is doubling down: hiring across engineering, sales, marketing and operations; positioning regionally in the U.S., Europe and Latin America; expanding its partnerships with vendors such as Ericsson and Nokia; and embedding its software upstream in enterprise private-cellular projects rather than as a later add-on. The next period is about scaling up; the subsequent period is about consolidating – as the biggest security player in the global private 5G game. Here’s the interview; all the responses are from Mor (pictured below, right).
Where will OneLayer be in two years, five years? What’s the plan?
“OneLayer is fulfilling a needed role in the industry and solving real customer pains around security and operations. Our mission is to transform any cellular network from an operational silo into part of the enterprise environment. In the coming two years our focus is specifically on: supporting mission critical (OT) networks with the device security, observability, and orchestration to go live and run smoothly; expanding further into our key geographies in the US, Latin America, and Europe; and supporting our customers across any network model.
“Our solution will satisfy any enterprise cellular deployment model (as part of our mission) from fully owned, to hybrid to virtual (public APN or future slice). The industry needs a standard to rely on, and in the next two years, our goal is to solidify that leadership position by becoming embedded into every major private cellular ecosystem, whether enterprises are building with Ericsson, Nokia, or other core vendors – including public providers worldwide.
“In five years, we expect OneLayer to be synonymous with cellular device security in the enterprise space – [as] an integral part of how organizations design, deploy, and operate their private networks. We will reach a point where, just as no one builds an enterprise IP network without an access control layer, no one builds a private 5G network without OneLayer securing the devices that connect to it. To reach our goals, we are working continuously to identify and solve more of our customers’ problems as they scale their networks towards global rollouts.”
Explain a little more about your go-to-market ambitions?
“We are seeing real pain in the market around both security and operations. In the case of security, we’ve seen deployments delayed by years because network teams had not brought security into the process early, and then had to work backwards to rearchitect their networks. We know specifically of some factories that won’t get security approval to operate their networks until OneLayer is deployed; and we have become mandated across deployments in one of our biggest customers.
“In the case of operations, securely onboarding devices at scale to meet organizational needs – particularly in utilities – is an ongoing challenge. The demand today is by far bigger than our ability to support, and we are working hard to close this gap while not compromising on our delivery quality, or on support for our existing customers. This is why we raised our Series A round – the need in the industry is clear.
“We are seeing some changes in the market – in particular, the timing of the OneLayer (software / licence) purchase. In the past we were purchased after a network’s operational deployment. However, the industry is finding that the security and operational challenges that we solve should be addressed much earlier in the deployment cycle. We are seeing customers moving the purchase of OneLayer earlier, to post network POC and, in many cases, to making OneLayer a part of their fundamental network blueprint.
“Companies now ask to buy OneLayer as part of their network critical elements package: network core, radios, routers, SIM cards and OneLayer. Our leading core network partners have obliged us, and we are honored by their recognition and inclusion of OneLayer as part of their original network offering. These changes are reflected in our growth – we enjoyed six-times growth in 2024 and three-times growth this year, supported by a strong customer pipeline extending through 2026.
“We’ve secured more than 20 enterprise customers across key industries, from power utilities and airports to manufacturing and mining. OneLayer has also expanded across North America, Latin America, and Europe, with deployments already live in several regions. Our partners include industry titans such as Ericsson and Nokia, and we recently expanded our impact within Fortune 100 manufacturing sites, with new deployments across multiple facilities. Looking ahead, we’re focused on scaling through partnerships, expanding our team, and entering new markets, both geographically and vertically.”
Why has there been such growth – in terms of the industrial climate, rather than the tech capability?
“The 5G industry crossed the chasm with regards to network purchase. In the past networks were deployed on the ‘innovation budget’, but today this is part of the networking team, and is key to hitting their modernization goals. In the past the main question for enterprises was: will the network work? Now they know, and the question is different. Now they ask: what do I need to do to make it work for my environment? Now all of the gaps that OneLayer solves are front and center for enterprise network and security teams. So the biggest reason for our growth is that we are solving real problems.
“When we founded OneLayer we realized that connectivity was one of the biggest barriers to industrial modernization. So we started by talking to early adopters of enterprise and industrial 5G – people who were actually trying to run production networks. They all hit the same wall: visibility, device identity, and policy enforcement. You can’t run mission-critical workloads on 5G if you can’t identify, continuously monitor, and trust every device. We built OneLayer to solve that – for any device, across any core, and in a simple, cost-effective way. That’s why we’ve seen such strong traction: we built the right product for a real pain point.”
What are the challenges for OneLayer to deliver on its ambition?
“Our main challenge is keeping up with the pace of demand. We’re solving challenges faced by enterprises across the globe, and we need to meet that demand while maintaining excellent service for our existing customers. It is also important to note that cellular and enterprise networks are each individually complex domains, and they are much more complex when combined. The ability to keep providing an enterprise experience and solution while handling cellular technology is far from trivial.
“For example, even properly identifying a device in a cellular environment is complicated. This is because traditional cellular device identifiers, such as SIM cards and IMEIs, are weak identifiers within an enterprise context. They are fine for a telco network to bill a subscriber, but they lack the depth and flexibility required by enterprises to control their network properly. SIM cards can be swapped – and how will your network know? All your network will know is the connection status, and an IP address.
“IMEIs are limited to the modem, which could be a match one for several different device SKUs. IMEIs can also be spoofed. So, from an enterprise perspective, just being able to trust that they know what a device is, and that they will be able to persistently identify and trust that device is complicated.
“OneLayer has worked hard to solve this problem, and we do it by integrating directly with the network core, using SPAN to monitor attach requests, radio capabilities, handovers and other critical cellular information. By analyzing the attributes of these messages, OneLayer gets information about a device’s components, capabilities, and actions. OneLayer then correlates all device data to create a unique, accurate ONEID to assign to each device. This comprehensive device fingerprint enables OneLayer to track each device holistically, rather than being reliant on SIM numbers and IMEIs. It also enables OneLayer to provide ‘dynamic device context’ – monitoring for changing identifiers and other behavioral anomalies that may indicate a compromised or misconfigured device.
“This is just one example of the complex challenges faced by our customers, but it is at the core of what we do. Understanding and being able to deliver on identity to this level is critical to solving the problems enterprises face when deploying 5G. Everything else builds on top of it: access control, segmentation, threat detection and response, and the ability to take action based on these insights. In the end bridging the gap between OT and IT environments cannot be achieved without the critical information provided via device visibility and context.”
Is AI driving interest in 5G – and also driving interest in OneLayer? Explain the flow.
“AI is a major driver of private 5G adoption, and by extension, it drives interest in OneLayer. The increasing need to connect edge devices to AI algorithms in real time operations requires highly reliable connectivity, and trust in the source that data is being gathered from. This defines a need among network owners to provide proper guardrails and visibility into what actually happened on the network when you enable AI data connectivity. This need will further drive customers to OneLayer.”
Which verticals do you have most traction with? Are these the same as the standard private 5G verticals, or different and personal – and why?
“Our strongest traction aligns directly with the core private 5G verticals – utilities, manufacturing, ports, airports, oil and gas, and mining. These are industries where connectivity is mission-critical and where traditional IT tools don’t fit OT environments. What differentiates us is our ability to bridge IT and OT: securing both legacy industrial devices and new cellular endpoints under one framework.”
Will the OneLayer headcount change with the new funding? Has it changed?
“Absolutely. Since securing the round we’ve been hiring across engineering, sales, marketing, and operations. We are specifically looking to double the size of the company, and in some departments triple our headcount to support growth. We’re building regional teams in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America to support growing demand. OneLayer is a sales-led company with high-touch enterprise engagements, so having people close to customers and partners is critical.
What’s next?
“With this new funding, we’re focusing on three key priorities: accelerating go-to-market growth by expanding our partnerships with additional enterprises that are ready to secure their 5G networks; expanding product capabilities [by] continuously enhancing the platform to solve our customers’ most critical operational challenges; and scaling international expansion across Latin America and Europe, after strong growth in North America.
Demand is surging, and we’re scaling up to meet this growing need, head-on. We’re adding new capabilities for automation, analytics, and device orchestration – all while maintaining the industry-leading standards that define our platform. And we’re growing our reach. The challenges our customers face, specifically in the visibility, security, and management of connected devices, are global, and we’re ready to meet them wherever they are.”
