Investor · 1 deal
Every published round Cisco took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secure Code Warrior | Series B | 11 Dec 2019 | $70m | Lead | ARN (ARNnet) (Mon 24 Jul 2023), SmartCompany (Tue 21 Jul 2020), SmartCompany (Mon 6 Jan 2020), SmartCompany (Tue 17 Dec 2019), Startup Daily, ARN (ARNnet) (Wed 11 Dec 2019), AirTree Ventures portfolio |
Companies Cisco has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secure Code Warrior | 11 Dec 2019, Series B | 1 | 1 |
Fund closes reported for Cisco, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Cisco has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Cisco did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of Cisco is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies Cisco acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Company | Kind | Announced | Price | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exablaze | Acquisition | 16 Dec 2019 | - | ARN (ARNnet), TechCrunch Australia |
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Francine Katsoudas | Chief People Officer | SmartCompany |
| Gee Rittenhouse | Senior Vice President and General Manager | ARN (ARNnet) |
| Jeetu Patel | Senior Vice President and General Manager | ARN (ARNnet) |
| Joe Iavarone | Global Program Management Roles (former) | Australian FinTech |
| Jonathan Davidson | Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Service Provider Networking | ARN (ARNnet) |
| Kelly Steckelberg | Senior Director in Consumer Finance (former) | Startup Daily |
| Markus Borlinghaus | Wholesale Investor (Thu 3 Mar 2022), Wholesale Investor (Fri 11 Feb 2022) | |
| Richard Hsu | Software Engineer (former) | Afterwork Ventures portfolio |
| Rob Salvagno | Head of Corporate Development | ARN (ARNnet), TechCrunch Australia |
| Rowan Trollope | SVP (former) | Startup Daily |
Stories naming Cisco. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Adelaide early-stage venture firm Eastend Ventures has finalised its first fund at $30 million, with Funds SA as cornerstone backer, and reports seven investments and more than $8 million already deployed.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Dealroom
Nexthop AI, which builds networking gear for AI data centres, has banked $500 million in a Lightspeed-led round valuing it at $4.2 billion, and showed off three new switches.
Australian AI infrastructure company SharonAI Holdings has debuted on Nasdaq at a valuation above $1 billion, with a December pre-IPO round, backing from Digital Alpha and USD.AI, and an April ASX float planned.
Valiant Finance, an Australian fintech, has recruited vendor-finance veteran Joe Iavarone from DLL as its North American President, tasked with driving US growth while reporting to co-founder and chief executive Alex Molloy.
Tidal Ventures explains why it has invested in SecurePII, a voice-compliance startup whose platform redacts payment card data from calls, covering market timing, product, channel model, founders and seed-stage plans.
Australian research-tech startup Heatseeker AI has landed $US1.5m in pre-seed backing from Capital F and others to chase the huge market research industry.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·mediaweek.com.au·mi-3.com.au·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily
Zendesk has agreed to acquire Sydney contact-centre software firm Local Measure, founded by Jonathan Barouch, in a deal reportedly valuing it at $100 million; earlier raises from 2017 and 2023 are recalled.
Interactive systems chief Simon Durkin explains how serving clients through their acquisitions fuels growth; ex-Datacom Australia head Alex Coates joins as chief executive from January 2025.
Leading Edge Data Centres has received a 30 million dollar equity investment from DigitalBridge Group to speed up its regional Australian edge data centre expansion over the next two years.
Profile of European HR-tech firm Scalable Global Solutions seeking growth capital; its founder previously sold two companies to Juniper and Microsoft and held executive roles at major tech firms.
Profile of Scalable Global Solutions, a European HR-tech firm enabling SMEs to run remote departments in Croatia, reporting €1.4 million raised and seeking growth capital; its founder previously sold companies to Microsoft and Juniper.
Ignition Lane's weekly tech roundup: AirTree raises $700m across three new funds, dozens of Australian startups announce rounds, a wave of acquisitions including Block completing its Afterpay buy, plus Web3 commentary and US market moves.
AfterWork Ventures explains why it joined SwingVision's $2 million seed round led by Tennis Australia's Wildcard Ventures, alongside Roddick, Blake and the MyFitnessPal co-founders; the app brings pro-grade tennis analytics to amateurs.
Also Startup Daily
Profile of The Experience Exchange, an employee upskilling platform piloted by PwC, Deloitte, Apple and Cisco. Co-founders Darren Scott and Shane Grove lead it; a safe-note is open and a VC-led equity round is being sought, but nothing has closed.
Singapore managed services provider CrossPoint Technology Solutions has bought Australian IT consultancy Avante IT for an undisclosed sum, the third local IT services acquisition reported that week alongside Mentum Systems and Swytch.
Sydney customer-research software firm Dovetail raised $5 million from existing backers Felicis, Blackbird, Grok and Didier Elzinga, following its 2020 seed round, to fund a North American expansion.
Weekly roundup reporting Invoice2go's sale to Bill.com, raises by Go1, Employment Hero, InDebted and others, Rokt's secondary sale, Wildcard Ventures' launch, plus global deals including Zoom-Five9 and Salesforce-Slack.
News roundup: Das Studio to design Adelaide's Line Zero factory project, Adbri's Mawsons JV buys Milbrae, VEEM wins a modernisation grant, and Lithium Australia secures a European patent.
Wholesale Investor profiles TEX.inc, a B2B e-learning marketplace founded by former big-tech executives, detailing an open million-dollar convertible note offering ahead of a planned Series A.
Cisco has agreed to acquire vulnerability management firm Kenna Security, planning to fold its risk-based technology into the SecureX platform, with the deal expected to close in Cisco's fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.
Weekly technology roundup covering Australia's digital economy budget, multiple startup raises including SafetyCulture's unicorn round, Data Republic's administration, TikTok's new permanent CEO, and Bill.com's purchase of Divvy.
Also Startup Daily
Weekly roundup column covering Zoom's record quarter, Redbubble reaching unicorn valuation, founder share sell-downs, a new secondary fund launch, and funding rounds for mental health and e-commerce startups.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Women's Agenda
WA incubator QuantumTX, founded by Atomic Sky, names its first cohort of ten tech companies working across mining, energy and defence to enter the global space sector.
Cisco has bought Exablaze, an Australian maker of FPGA-based ultra-low latency networking equipment, and will fold its technology into Cisco's Nexus data center switch line.
Also ARN (ARNnet)
Secure Code Warrior raised US$48 million (AU$70 million) in Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs, with Cisco and ForgePoint Capital joining existing backers AirTree and Paladin, plus a recalled 2018 round.
Also ARN (ARNnet)·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·ARN (ARNnet)
A Brisbane clean-energy grid startup has opened a Singapore office and launched a Series A share offer to fund expansion into France, the USA and APAC, after winning international energy-transition award recognition.
Order-ahead app Hey You, born from the Beat the Q and Posse merger and backed by Reinventure, has brought in Uzair Moosa as chief executive as it plans growth into food and new cities.
Startupbootcamp Australia is opening a Melbourne fintech accelerator on financial health, supported by NAB, Bupa, Deloitte and technology partners, with applications open until April alongside its existing smart energy program.