Australia’s largest operator Telstra invested an undisclosed amount in US-based VeloCloud Networks as part of the startup’s latest round of funding, which raised $35 million.

The funding round was led by Hermes Growth Partners and also included Cisco.

According to Mark Sherman, MD of Telstra Ventures, the investment in the software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) specialist is consistent with Telstra’s overall network strategy, with software defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualisation (NFV) increasingly playing a role in offering greater network flexibility and agility for enterprise customers.

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with VeloCloud on solutions for our enterprise customers, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where their technology can help businesses manage their networks in dynamic environments across multiple locations. Our first step will be to offer VeloCloud technology to customers in mainland China,” he said.

Telstra’s joint venture in China, Telstra PBS, is a provider of enterprise services to customers in mainland China and is adding VeloCloud SD-WAN solutions to its product suite.

“We expect SDN will continue to transform enterprise networking around the world, and VeloCloud’s SD-WAN can help companies achieve more agile and responsive networks as well as reduce costs,” said Sherman.

In a statement VeloCloud explained its cloud-delivered SD-WAN is designed to simplify and automate enterprise branch networking.

Telstra Ventures in November made investments in US-based BSS provider Boomtown and mobile analytics company Singular.