AT&T buys $650M stake in DriveNets, delivering major payout to founders, employees and early backers

American telecommunications giant AT&T has acquired shares from employees and investors of Israeli telecommunications unicorn DriveNets for $650 million.

DriveNets was founded by Ido Susan (CEO) and Hillel Kobrinsky (chief strategy officer). Susan previously founded Intucell, which was acquired by Cisco in 2013 for $475 million after raising just $6 million.

DriveNets currently employs 450 people and is in the process of hiring 100 more. To date, it has raised $587 million, with its most recent funding round in 2022 valuing the company at over $2 billion. Its investors include D2 Investments, Bessemer Venture Partners, Pitango, D1 Capital, Atreides Management, and Harel Investments.

AT&T has long been a major customer of DriveNets, whose Network Cloud solution has already been widely deployed in the core network of the U.S. telecom giant, which is traded in New York with a market capitalization of $194.4 billion. AT&T’s latest investment has enabled the company’s employees, founders, and investors, such as the Israeli venture capital firm Pitango and the American firm Bessemer, to realize a return on their investment. Other beneficiaries include the company’s founders, led by CEO Ido Susan.

DriveNets has recently announced a series of significant deals, including a strategic partnership with Japanese communications giant KDDI. Under the agreement, DriveNets will help KDDI accelerate the rollout of an open network architecture across its national infrastructure.

The KDDI agreement follows a series of high-profile global wins for DriveNets. In March 2024, Comcast, ranked as the world’s third-largest communications provider, also adopted DriveNets’ platform as part of its "Project Janus." That initiative includes AI-based features, real-time telemetry, and autonomous monitoring to enhance streaming quality and reduce operational costs.