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, or if you have any tips on that activity, please send the information to Sydney Sawaya ([email protected]).
Palo Alto Folds CloudGenix in $420M SASE PlayPalo Alto Networks got serious about SASE, announcing the acquisition of SD-WAN vendor CloudGenix for $420 million cash in a bid to bolster its Prisma Access offering. The managed security provider turned secure access service edge (SASE) vendor said CloudGenix’s SD-WAN capabilities will form the second pillar of its SASE offering.
“The combined platform will provide customers with a complete SASE offering that is best in class, easy to deploy, cloud managed, and delivered as-a-service,” said Palo Alto Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora, in a statement.
The deal is expected to close during Palo Alto’s fiscal fourth-quarter this fall. CloudGenix co-founders including Kumar Ramachandran, Mani Ramasamy, and Venkataraman Anand have said they will join Palo Alto.
Microsoft Digs Deeper Into 5G With Affirmed AcquisitionMicrosoft acquired Affirmed Networks in a move to bolster its position in the 5G ecosystem. The deal follows on a number of recent 5G-focused cloud deals Microsoft has scored with telecommunication operators, though this one moves the cloud giant’s operations slightly outside of that zone.
Financial terms were not announced, but Affirmed has raised $155 million, according to Crunchbase, including a $38 million funding round a year ago.
Yousef Khalidi, corporate VP for Azure Networking at Microsoft, explained in a blog post that the deal will allow the company to provide a more compelling platform to operators.
The deal also comes just a day after Affirmed named Anand Krishnamurthy as the company’s new president and CEO. Krishnamurthy, who previously served as COO, replaced Hassan Ahmed, who retired from the CEO position but will stay on as chairman of the company’s board.
AWS Pledges $20M to COVID-19 TestingAmazon Web Services (AWS) committed at least $20 million for COVID-19 diagnostic research and testing via its AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative. This new program is open to accredited research institutions and private entities that use AWS to run research-oriented workloads related to point-of-care diagnostics (testing that can be done at home or at a clinic with same-day results).
While it will initially focus on COVID-19, AWS says it “will also consider other infectious disease diagnostic projects” in the future. The cloud giant will provide funding to participating organizations through AWS in-kind credits and technical support to research teams.
Other VC/M&A NewsGoogle pledged another $800 million for small to midsized businesses (SMBs), health care workers, and governments as they struggle to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep their doors open as the disease continues to wreak havoc on the economy.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said his company will commit $225 million to support local and global COVID-19 response efforts. This includes $8 million in cash, $210 million in products, and up to $5 million in grants and funds matching Cisco employees’ donations to nonprofits.
AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile US, Verizon, Comcast, Cox Communications, and others are responding to expected network impacts tied to the growing coronavirus outbreak, with Verizon being the most detailed in announcing plans to increase its capex by $500 million.
Equinix completed the acquisition of bare metal and edge computing startup Packet, and also disclosed that it paid $335 million in the deal.
Hitachi Vantara scooped up the debris of Containership’s disastrous Kubernetes cruise, announcing that it acquired the assets of the failed startup for an undisclosed amount. The deal followed six months after Containership permanently docked its operations.
Rancher Labs went to the bank after announcing a $40 million Series D funding round led by Rancher customer and Australia’s largest telecommunications company, Telstra. The new round brings its total funding to $95 million.
Edge startup StackPath closed a $216 million Series B funding round led by Juniper Networks and Cox Communications bringing its total raised to $396 million.
HashiCorp raked in $175 million in a Series E funding round that propelled the company’s valuation to an astonishing $5.1 billion.
Huawei boosted its 2020 investment on research and development to $20 billion as it prepares for a significantly increased demand for network infrastructure and services. Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of the global juggernaut, told The Wall Street Journal the company will spend an additional $5.8 billion on research and development activities this year.
Following a series of acquisitions, RDX, clckwrk, and ClearDB joined under the Navisite brand.
Universal code search service provider Sourcegraph scored $23 million in Series B funding led by Craft Ventures.
Ribbon Communications completed its previously announced acquisition of ECI Telecom Group.
Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Hailo raised $60 million in a Series B funding round led by its existing investors and joined by ABB Technology Ventures, NEC Corporation, and Latitude Ventures.
Ordr announced additional Series B funding from Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente Ventures. The company has now raised approximately $50 million.
Netlify bagged $53 million in Series C funding led by EQT Ventures, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, as well as Preston-Werner Ventures.
Security operations center-as-a-service company Arctic Wolf closed a $60 million Series D funding round.
SASE provider Perimeter 81 bagged a $4.5 million Series A extension round, bringing the company’s total funding to $19.5 million raised in under twelve months.
Digital Realty announced it completed the previously announced merger with InterXion.
Everlaw secured a $62M Series C funding round co-led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s growth equity investment fund. The investment brings Everlaw’s total funding to $96 million.
Spectro Cloud, an enterprise cloud-native infrastructure company, emerged from stealth with $7.5 million in seed funding led by Sierra Ventures.
ModelOp closed a $6 million Series A round of funding led by Valley Capital Partners, with participation from Silicon Valley Data Capital.
Rogue device mitigation provider Sepio Systems snagged an additional $4 million from Munich Re Ventures and Hanaco Ventures following its recent Series A round. Sepio Systems has raised $15 million to date.
Security provider Stellar Cyber received $7.1 million in additional funding in an expansion of its Series A round.
Cloud data connectivity and integration provider CData Software announced a $20 million Series A investment from Updata Partners.
Data lake engine company Dremio bagged $70 million in Series C funding.
DataStax announced its acquisition of The Last Pickle, an Apache Cassandra consulting and services company, for an undisclosed amount.
GitHub signed an agreement to acquire npm.
Hellman & Friedman entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DevOps software security service provider Checkmarx.
Private application access company Axis Security emerged from stealth with $17 million in total funding.
Arkose Labs raised an additional $22 million in Series B funding led by Microsoft’s venture fund, M12.
Espressive snagged $30 million in Series B funding led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners.
SoftIron secured $34 million in Series B funding from its existing investors.
Humio announced a $20 million Series B investment led by Dell Technologies Capital, which brings its total investment raised to $32 million.
Cybersecurity asset management company Axonius closed a $58 Series C funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. To date, Axonius has raised $95 million.
Mellanox Technologies is set to acquire privately held network intelligence technology developer Titan IC.
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