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With $27M In Funding, Fleet Wants To Bring More Freedom To Enterprise Device Management
Open device management startup Fleet Inc. Wants to become the go-to platform for enterprises looking to safeguard the thousands of laptops and smartphones they hand out to employees after closing on a $27 million Series B round of funding.
Today's round was led by Ten Eleven Ventures and saw participation from CRV, Open Core Ventures, GitLab co-founder and Executive Chair Sid Sijbrandij, Moonfire Ventures, Vercel Inc. Chief Executive Guillermo Rauch and many other angel investors.
The startup has built an open-source device management platform that gives companies the ability to secure their computing devices on their own terms. Device management software is used by organizations to set up new devices with the applications and settings their employees need to work securely, and ensure they can update them regularly.
With its open approach, Fleet is looking to compete with a host of industry stalwarts that have standardized on proprietary mobile device management software. Unlike the most prominent providers, whose software is proprietary and rigid, its open platform focuses on transparency, extensibility and repeatability, giving organizations full visibility over their fleets of devices, with the ability to audit and configure them however they see fit.
Fleet believes that the open nature of its platform means organizations have much more flexibility and control in terms of staying compliant with regulations such as PCI and FedRAMP. It also points out that most traditional device management firms are pushing their customers toward cloud-only deployments so they can increase their profit margins.
But when they do this, it means customers have less choices and less control over the way they provision and secure their corporate devices, complicating maintenance and compliance. In contrast, Fleet offers both hosted and on-premises deployments, giving customers the option of greater flexibility by self-hosting, citing increased demand among enterprises.
Web searches from June 2025 (Google Trends data) reveal growing interest in flexible hosting options
The greater flexibility it affords has appealed to a growing number of well known enterprises, including the likes of Netflix Inc., Stripe Inc., Fastly Inc., Uber Technologies Inc. And Reddit Inc., which have helped Fleet to grow its revenue more than six-fold in the last two years.
Fleet says its customers have securely enrolled millions of devices, including iPhones, Android phones, tablets, laptops, AWS gaming servers and even entire data centers, as well as factory robots and drones, using Fleet's platform. This is possible because its platform supports any operating system, including Linux, Windows and iOS, as well as various networks, virtual private networks and zero-touch implementations.
"Fleet helped us avoid being forced to the cloud by our current MDM provider," said Stripe's head of developer infrastructure Scott MacVicar. "We were able to migrate everything over to Fleet a few weeks ahead of our renewal, and now Stripe is in control."
Part of the reason for Fleet's rapid growth is its growing list of channel partners, which includes various resellers, managed services providers and systems integrators. It says these partners get the advantage of dedicated technical enablement, with go-to-market resources, deal registration and direct access to its product and engineering teams, enabling them to offer their customers a comprehensive, flexible and easy-to-deploy device management platform.
Fleet Chief Executive Mike McNeil said his company has built its platform to be completely open from the very beginning. "Hosting is a big part of that, we prioritize folks being able to host wherever they want," he said. "Over time, we've added enterprise-grade managed hosting, and many organizations prefer that since it's simpler. But we'll always let customers choose."
Ten Eleven Ventures Operating Partner Scott Lundgren said he's backing Fleet because it provides the kind of device management setup that he wished he had during his time at Carbon Black, where he served as chief technology officer from 2012 to 2018. "It's open source, you can deploy it anywhere, and it lets you secure all of your Macs, phones, and even desktop Linux in one place," he explained.
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What Is IoT Device Management? Definition And Best Practices
An IT department should consider 10 aspects of IoT device management. Here are the details of these 10 best practices.
Device OnboardingThe first step of device onboarding is known as provisioning. It is the process of configuring the device so that it will work properly with the network. The process of configuring may involve setting predetermined network settings or modifying the device from its original settings so that it will have the functions intended in the network.
Once provisioning is done, the device needs to be authenticated so that the network can confirm its identity. This is a security protocol that prevents unauthorized users from accessing the network. There are IoT device management platforms that support the onboarding of thousands of devices at the same time to make the onboarding process efficient.
Device ViewingA network administrator will want to see how many and what devices are connected to the network. This is done through an IoT device management platform that lists all network-connected devices. The platform provides a device list that can be searched and sorted at any time. This allows the network administrator to run diagnostics on devices and ensure that devices are correctly connected.
Device ConfigurationJust because you have provisioned a device doesn't mean that the configuration of that device is done. Devices are constantly evolving and require continued configuration. Configuration includes performing updates to firmware, allowing access permissions and adjusting the properties of the device.
Device GroupingBecause an enterprise network could comprise thousands of devices, it is important for IoT device management to group the devices for easy management. IT managers will organize the devices based on function, location or other fundamental characteristics. These groups are prioritized by top-level groups, subgroups and dynamically constructed smart groups.
DiagnosticsIt is essential to run diagnostics on the IoT network regularly. This helps to identify problem areas to troubleshoot before they become major issues leading to network downtime. Network experts may run diagnostics in groups to systematically work through the entire network to troubleshoot issues.
Status MonitoringNetwork administrators will maintain status monitoring data that provides insights into the performance of either a group of devices or individual devices. From monitoring, user-defined notifications can be established that are triggered when certain data points are reached. Device alarms help administrators identify significant changes in device performance or status. Status monitoring helps administrators detect issues such as security breaches where device configurations might be changed.
Device SecurityEvery network strives to be secure. IoT device management aims to secure each endpoint and the entire network through firmware updates. It uses system monitoring to update software where necessary to use the latest security protocols. Network administrators must consider the physical security of the network as well as the access control through the network.
Device UpdatesHardware and software need to be updated regularly so that the device works effectively. Firmware and software updates issued by device manufacturers must be strictly followed for network stability. It is also essential to update security credentials and profiles to ensure that only allowed individuals are able to access the devices. IoT device management software platforms will enable bulk updates and configuration changes to run the system efficiently.
Data IntegrationBeing part of a network means each device has access to data from other networked devices. This means that network users have the ability to use data from multiple resources in the network. Data integration allows each IoT device to communicate with third-party applications to help push information to the correct user.
Device RetirementEach device has a life cycle and will reach the end of its life cycle at a designated point in time. Sometimes, devices fail and need to be replaced, while other times, the technology is outdated and must be upgraded. It is important that when a device is being retired, its data is archived and retained so that the organization can still access and utilize it.
Top 6 Mobile Device Management (MDM) Solutions Worth Checking Out
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