Bangalore, May 1 2014: Holding out a helping hand to innovative start ups world-wide,  – Cisco Investments, the corporate venture capital arm of Cisco, today announced  the allocation of an additional $150 million over the next two to three years to fund early-stage companies within the global startup community.  There is a specific focus on India-based innovation.
The new funding allocation builds on Cisco Investments’ current $2 billion portfolio and is focused on next horizon “themes” to accelerate the development of disruptive technology markets, including big data and analytics; the Internet of Things (IoT); connected mobility; storage; silicon and  the content technology ecosystem.
Cisco Investments also today announced it has made three minority investments in IoT accelerators and startups Alchemist Accelerator, Ayla Networks and EVRYTHNG. The new funding increases Cisco Investments’ thematic investing to $250 million total, adding to the previously announced $100 million commitment to startups focused on the emerging Internet of Everything (IoE) market opportunity. Link to Cisco Investment
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From the  Cisco Blog: There is No Limit to Innovation by Hilton Romanski
What Do We Bring to the Table?
If you are a startup with a great idea, you’re probably looking for capital and you’re looking for help.  And as a practical matter, if you really believe in the value of your idea, you want to get both of those things from your investors, not just one or the other.  We completely understand these goals and our approach reflects a focus on adding (and gaining) strategic and business value.
We combine the benefits of a strategic investor with those of a traditional venture investor and use a wide range of investment vehicles to nurture innovation in the startup community.  Investment types range from small grants to seed-stage companies and winners of business plan competitions, to larger equity investments in later stage and even pre-IPO companies.
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