Cisco's corporate venture-capital arm says it will spend $150m on start-up companies over the next two to three years, accelerating its investments into areas such as Internet-enabled communication between objects - Internet of Things.
This is planned complement other Cisco investing themes such as big data and connecting mobile devices, Cisco senior vice president for corporate development Hilton Romanski told media.
The amount, coupled with $100m that Cisco said in January it would deploy to start-ups in those areas, puts Cisco Investments on par with mid-sized venture capital firms across the industry. It may have more funds available after previously committing large sums to Russia which may not now proceed at the same pace. Most of the investment is expected to be US-based as previous ventures have tended to be in local geographies. It did take part in a $7m investment in Everything, a UK-based company that connects products to the Internet.