Cisco earmarks $US150m for start-up investments
- 02 May, 2014 06:09
Cisco's venture capital arm this week said it is allocating an additional $150 million over two to three years to fund start-ups around the world.
Cisco Investments' new funding allocation extends its current $US2 billion portfolio and is focused on disruptive technology markets or "themes," including big data and analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), "connected" mobility, storage, silicon, content technology and India.
+ MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Cisco a mystery investor in storage company? +
Cisco Investments has made three minority investments in IoT companies (Alchemist Accelerator, Ayla Networks and EVRYTHNG). The new funding increases Cisco Investments' thematic investing to $250 million, adding to the previously announced $100 million to start-ups focused on the emerging Internet of Everything market.
Cisco Investments will allow portfolio companies to access resources such as Cisco IT, company business leaders, and Cisco's partners and customers through major industry events, such as the annual Cisco Live conference.
Other theme investments of Cisco's include Whiptail, a solid state flash storage company eventually acquired by Cisco; Bit Stew Systems in IoT; Loggly and Platfora in big data; EnVerv, in silicon; and Belly, MobStac and Phunware, in connected mobility.
Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 28 years, 23 at Network World. He also writes The Cisco Connection blog and can be reached on Twitter @Jim_Duffy.
Read more about lan and wan in Network World's LAN & WAN section.