Taming the Data Center Boom: Carma Secures M33 Growth Funding

DENVER, CO – October 27, 2026 — The digital infrastructure industry is experiencing a gold rush. Driven by the insatiable demands of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and edge workloads, billions of dollars are flowing into data centers, fiber-optic networks, and subsea cables. Yet, beneath this gleaming hardware lies a hidden, brittle reality: the software managing these multi-million-dollar assets is often stuck in the past.

Today, Carma, Inc., a Denver-based network and digital infrastructure platform, announced a strategic investment from Boston-based M33 Growth. The capital injection, the terms of which remain undisclosed, is designed to accelerate Carma’s product roadmap and aggressively expand its engineering, implementation, and go-to-market teams. But more importantly, it signals a critical maturation point for the telecommunications and data center industries.

As part of the transaction, enterprise software veteran Ryan Kubacki has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, joining co-founders Frank and Joe McDermott to scale the decade-old, bootstrapped company into an institutional-grade powerhouse.

The Hidden Bottleneck in Our Digital Wellbeing

In my years observing how institutions support our shared wellbeing, I have often found that the most critical bottlenecks are not a lack of physical resources, but a failure of operational systems. We cannot build a more connected, equitable future if the very plumbing of our digital world is leaking.

For years, digital infrastructure operators have relied on a patchwork of horizontal software, disjointed point solutions, legacy operational support systems, and, shockingly, manual spreadsheets. When a hyperscale data center or a regional fiber carrier attempts to link its physical assets—space, power, cross-connects, and dark fiber—to the commercial layer of contracts, service level agreements, and billing, the data often breaks. Orders stall. Revenue slips through the cracks between disparate systems.

Horizontal software solutions often require millions of dollars in custom integration just to understand the difference between a virtual server and a physical dark fiber strand. Carma was founded in 2016 to solve this exact problem. Brothers Frank and Joe McDermott spent a decade building an AI-fueled quote-to-cash platform purpose-built for this complex ecosystem. By providing a single data model that connects Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), ordering, inventory, design, provisioning, service, maintenance, and billing, Carma creates a unified source of truth.

"When Joe and I started Carma, we set out to solve a real problem addressing the fragmented, brittle software stacks that digital infrastructure operators run their businesses on today," said Frank McDermott, Founder of Carma. "Over the past several years, we have earned the trust of some of the most sophisticated operators in the world. We're thrilled to partner with M33 Growth and welcome Ryan Kubacki as CEO to help us build on that foundation and scale Carma into the operating system of choice for the entire digital infrastructure industry."

The Growth Playbook: Enter the Enterprise Veteran

The transition from a successful, founder-led enterprise to a globally scaled software vendor requires a specific kind of operational DNA. M33 Growth, a venture and growth-stage firm known for partnering with bootstrapped companies, has deployed a classic and highly effective playbook by bringing Ryan Kubacki to the helm.

M33 Growth has built a formidable reputation by identifying founder-led companies that have successfully bootstrapped their way to product-market fit. Their strategy relies on injecting specialized resources—specifically in sales, marketing, and data asset development—to break these companies through the ceiling of their initial growth phases.

Kubacki is no stranger to the rigorous demands of enterprise software scaling. He previously served as CEO of Contruent, another M33 Growth portfolio company, where he orchestrated a period of significant expansion that culminated in a successful investment exit to The Riverside Company in November 2025. Before that, as Chief Revenue Officer at Flexera, Kubacki was instrumental in a leadership team that doubled the company's valuation in just three years, leading to a massive $2.9 billion acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in 2020.

"Frank, Joe, and the Carma team have built an incredibly differentiated platform on the back of deep domain expertise and years of learning inside some of the largest operators in the world," noted Kara Hollis, Executive Director at M33 Growth. "We are excited to partner with the team and support the next phase of growth."

By pairing the deep domain expertise of the McDermott brothers—who will remain heavily involved in customer and prospect engagement—with Kubacki’s institutional scaling experience, M33 Growth is positioning Carma to capture a rapidly consolidating market.

"We believe Carma has a rare combination of a differentiated product, deep customer trust, and a market moving in its direction," said incoming CEO Ryan Kubacki. "I'm energized to work alongside Frank, Joe, and the entire team to build on what they've created and take Carma into its next chapter, starting with continuing to increase value to our amazing customers. LET’S GO!!!"

AI-Fueled Operations: Moving Beyond the Spreadsheet

What separates Carma from broader, horizontal IT service management platforms like ServiceNow or legacy telecom giants like Amdocs is its deep, purpose-built focus on the physical realities of digital infrastructure.

The platform aggregates over two dozen operational and commercial functions into one system. This is not merely an administrative upgrade; it is a foundational shift in how networks are managed. By normalizing data across the entire lifecycle of an asset, Carma enables genuine artificial intelligence applications. This AI-fueled approach allows operators to train models for intelligent automation, predictive maintenance, and complex revenue assurance.

When a carrier can generate a quote based on live, real-time physical inventory rather than a static, outdated database, the speed of business accelerates. When AI can detect revenue leakage by automatically cross-referencing active cross-connects with billing ledgers, profitability surges. Industry insiders note that this level of integration is becoming a baseline requirement rather than a luxury, especially as operators manage the sprawling, decentralized networks required for edge computing and AI workloads.

Early adopters have already validated this model. Companies like Hudson Interxchange and AtlasEdge have integrated Carma's operational platform to manage their complex environments. Furthermore, Carma has solidified its technical foundation through strategic integrations, achieving Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status and joining the Autodesk Developer Network to incorporate advanced AutoCAD DWG visualization for data center floor space and power distribution right into the platform.

A Foundation for the Connected Future

The investment from M33 Growth represents more than just a financial milestone for a Denver-based software company; it is a reflection of a broader industry reckoning. As we demand more from our digital infrastructure—faster connectivity, lower latency, and massive data processing capabilities—the back-office systems that support these physical assets can no longer be an afterthought.

The telecommunications and data center sectors are recognizing that operational excellence is inextricably linked to customer satisfaction and financial viability. The days of managing next-generation fiber networks with last-generation spreadsheets are rapidly drawing to a close.

With fresh capital to accelerate its product roadmap, an expanded go-to-market team, and a leadership structure that blends founder vision with proven enterprise execution, Carma is uniquely positioned to lead this modernization wave. As the digital infrastructure industry continues its unprecedented expansion, the software operating systems that manage this growth will ultimately dictate how effectively we can build the connected, equitable future we all rely upon.