Company
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round Cisco raised.
Companies Cisco acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Hsu | Software Engineer (former) | Afterwork Ventures portfolio |
| Markus Borlinghaus | Wholesale Investor (3 Mar 2022), Wholesale Investor (11 Feb 2022) | |
| Kelly Steckelberg | Senior Director in Consumer Finance (former) | Startup Daily |
| Joe Iavarone | Global Program Management Roles (former) | Australian FinTech |
Stories naming Cisco. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
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.
Canva has hired Zoom finance chief Kelly Steckelberg as its new CFO, nine months after Damien Singh's exit, as the design software firm weighs a US float.
Also Women's Agenda
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.
Also SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
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.