Here are some of the most prominent venture capital and merger and acquisition news items from the past month. If you’d like SDxCentral to report on your company’s VC or M&A activity in our monthly Money Moves section, or if you have any tips on that activity, please send the information to Sydney Sawaya ([email protected]).

Juniper Networks Acquires Apstra to Drive Deeper Automation

Juniper Networks acquired Apstra in a deal drives deeper automation into Juniper’s Junos-based data center networking platform. The acquisition should better position Juniper in the intent-based networking segment against rival Cisco.

Apstra is a pioneer in the intent-based networking field. Juniper noted that the Apstra platform allows users to “describe how the data center should behave in terms of outcomes and the system implements and continuously assures that the network operations and experience match the intent.” This provides proactive insights and automated root cause identification and remediation.

Financial terms of the deal were not released, but Juniper said that the deal will water down its earnings for the first half of fiscal 2021 before starting to add value. Apstra Founder David Cheriton will join Juniper as chief data center scientist.

Cisco Pays $730M+ for IMImobile, Slido for Webex Boost

Cisco paid hundreds of millions of dollars or more to acquire two companies, IMImobile and Slido, that it says will boost customer interaction on its Webex video conferencing platform.

The networking giant said it reached a $730 million deal with IMImobile, a public company based in the United Kingdom, that provides cloud communications software and services. And it also announced its intent to acquire Slido, a Slovakian startup that developed an audience interaction platform with more than 7 million participants monthly. It gives companies real-time feedback before, during, and after events and meetings using polls, Q&A, and quizzes.

Cisco plans to fold both companies into its Webex portfolio, which has seen staggering growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cisco plans to combine IMImobile with its new Webex Contact Center offer to provide what it calls “contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS).”

Microsoft Cloud Security Execs Score $100M, Launch Wiz

Cloud security startup Wiz emerged from stealth with $100 million in Series A financing and a security platform already in use at Fortune 100 customers including Docusign.

The founding team, Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik, came from Microsoft’s Cloud Security Group and built the security stack for Azure. They’ve worked together for more than 15 years and also sold an earlier startup, cloud access security broker Adallom, to Microsoft for $320 million in 2015. The team left the cloud giant and started writing code for Wiz in January 2020.

Wiz plans to use the Series A to grow its presence in the market and invest in research and development, Assaf said.

Movers and Shakers

Orca Security scored a $55 million Series B financing round, bringing the startup’s overall funding to more than $82 million in its fight against cloud security heavyweights including Palo Alto Networks.

Cisco announced its intent to acquire Dashbase and roll the startup’s technology into its AppDynamics platform, which provides application performance management and analytics.

OneTrust secured a $300 million Series C funding round led by TCV.  The funding values OneTrust at $5.1 billion and brings the company’s total money raised in the last 18 months to $710 million.

Xilinx reached a deal to acquire Falcon Computing Solutions, a privately-held provider of high-level synthesis (HLS) compiler optimization technology for hardware acceleration of software applications. Financial details of the asset purchase transaction were not disclosed.

EclecticIQ, an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based cybersecurity provider, closed a $24 million Series C funding round.

Sectigo acquired SSL247, an SSL certificate and web security provider in the U.K. and France, and Xolphin, a Netherlands-based provider of SSL certificates and digital signatures. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cloudflare announced its acquisition of Linc, an automation platform provider that helps front-end developers collaborate and build applications.

Universal code search provider Sourcegraph secured $50 million in Series C funding led by Sequoia Capital. The company has raised a total of $98 million in funding to date.

Salt Security bagged $30 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from existing investors Tenaya Capital, S Capital VC, and Y Combinator. To date, the company has raised a total of $60 million in equity financing.

Skyflow, a data privacy vault company, raised $17.5 million in Series A funding led by Canvas Ventures.

Very Good Security announced some very good news that the company raised $60 million in Series C financing led by Vertex Ventures U.S.

West Monroe, a national business and technology consulting firm, acquired Two Six Capital, a San Francisco-based data science consultancy specializing in private equity. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Pico completed a $135 million Series C funding round led by new investor Intel Capital.

IBM penned a deal to acquire Nordcloud, a European cloud implementation, application transformation, and managed services provider. Financial details were not disclosed.

SQL database developer SingleStore closed an $80 million Series E funding round led by  Insight Partners, bringing the company’s total funding to $238 million to date.

Beyond Identity announced a $75 million Series B round funded by existing investors and bringing total investment in the company to $105 million. 

Weaveworks raised $36 million in Series C funding led by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ericsson, and Orange Ventures, bringing total funds raised to date to $60 million. 

Cambridge Quantum Computing scored $45 million in new financing from investors including Honeywell Ventures, IBM Ventures, JSR Corporation, Serendipity Capital, Alvarium Investments, and Talipot Holdings. 

Edge artificial intelligence (AI) automation and control software provider Adapdix completed an $8 million Series A funding round led by WRVI Capital.

Trilio secured $15 million in new funding which includes $12 million in Series B growth equity led by SKK Ventures and a $3 million debt facility from Avid Bank.

Ares Security acquired certain assets and contracts of Vidsys, a physical security information management (PSIM) software provider.

Application intelligence company Bionic emerged from stealth with $17 million in funding led by Battery Ventures' investors Dharmesh Thakker and René Bonvanie.

Frontend development provider Vercel announced a $40 million Series D funding round led by GV. The new funding brings the total raised to $61 million.

VMRay, an automated threat analysis and detection provider, closed its second Series B round of funding with an additional $15 million led by Digital Partners. The new seed money follows VMRay’s initial $10 million round in September 2019.

Nubix raised $2.7 million in seed financing led by Tuscan Management, bringing total funding for the company to $4.5 million.

DataBank completed its acquisition of zColo data center assets from Zayo Group Holdings.

Identity intelligence company 4iQ and Alto Analytics merged and rebranded as Constella Intelligence.

ControlUp acquired Avacee, a scalable platform provider device and systems management.

BigID bagged $70 million in Series D funding, lifting the company's valuation to $1 billion.

Cypress.io, an automated testing framework company, secured $40 million in Series B funding led by OpenView Venture Partners.

Woolpert acquired Data Cloud Solutions for an undisclosed amount.