Thanks to the innovations and expansions of mobile networks, on-device processing, and the cloud, connectivity and connected networks are now a part and parcel of the way many devices and services operate today. But behind the scenes, there remain a lot of fragments: differentiation of regions, technologies, tariffs, and devices may spell a lot of work for enterprises or service providers that want to leverage that connectivity in a cohesive manner.

A startup called Monogoto has built a platform based on software-defined connectivity to help manage that work, and now it is announcing $27 million in funding.

This Series A round is chock-full of strategic backers, which underscores the demand for the "connectivity-as-a-service" technology of the company. Toyota Ventures, the venture arm of the huge carmaker, led the round with participation from new investors such as Samsung Next, Kickstart, Assembly Ventures, Magenta, and J-Ventures, in addition to previous backers The Singtel Group, Telefónica, Team8, Alter Venture Partners, and Triventures.

To date, Monogoto has raised $38 million. The company is not disclosing its valuation.

A number of startups have identified gaps in the market for improving how connected devices actually connect to networks, and it's a ripe market. The fact is that we have multiple carriers around the world, and each have their own tariffs and different wireless technologies. This is all about stitching together patchworks of coverage. Whenever an enterprise is running a fleet of cars or drones, or a services business wants to operate across multiple geographies or networks, it has to figure out how to stitch together patchworks of coverage. (Some startups in this general area include Cubic Telecom, FloLive, Airalo, and Wirepas.)

The Palo Alto-based Monogoto, which claims to have worked on the challenge, is scaling up its software to include 550 networks and 180 countries-around public cellular networks, private LTE or 5G networks and satellite networks.

Co-founder and CEO Itamar Kunik spent nine years working on telecoms infrastructure projects for the Israeli military's 8200 intelligence unit. It was then that he realized how hard it is to have services work consistently on networks, even with solutions available in the market for orchestrating connections. After leaving Unit 8200, he moved to Fring, a mobile messaging application that was, in its pursuit of figuring out how to work more efficiently on legacy mobile networks, and that was when he had his "a-ha" moment. "Twilio was rising, and we were banging our heads," he recalled. And then he had a realization: Twilio was not a telephony company; it was an API platform for developers. "'This is what we should do,' we said, but for the next wave of need. That next wave is connectivity."

Thus Monogoto was born.

It works with businesses across asset tracking, smart metering, fleet management, and telematics for vehicles, point-of-sale device providers, retail, healthcare, and micromobility. So, it covers not only the hardware devices that work with network management services based on that but also the software end.

Monogoto's end-users are routine customers, carriers that wish to operate their own connected services and provision connectivity solutions on behalf of enterprises.

The use cases tend to involve stuff like phones and vehicles and drones, but sometimes they're a little more organic: One customer is using Monogoto's network to help track and manage thousands of cattle — they have little trackers on their ears — roaming across plains covered by a mix of network technologies. Enterprises have been looking for an infrastructure that can really make connectivity possible in the new age, and Monogoto is leading with its software-defined, accessible, and affordable solution," said Chris Thomas, co-founder and partner at Assembly Ventures, in a statement.