Here are some of the most prominent venture capital and merger and acquisition news items from January. 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 Julia King ([email protected]).

Netskope announced a new investment round targeted at expanding its reach into the secure access service edge (SASE) market.

The $401 million investment round was led by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value. The firm has now raised nearly $1 billion, including a $300 million investment round in mid-2021, which pushed its valuation to $7.5 billion. The company was expected to file for an initial public offering (IPO) following that round, which has yet to happen. Read more.

Dish Network scored $1.5 billion in new funding tied to senior secured notes with a 2027 due date. That amount was triple what Dish Network had initially filed for, showing robust market support.

That support could have also been linked to the 11.75% interest rate tied to the notes, which could put pressure on repayment plans. The latest funding and interest rates are also tied to a $2 billion funding round Dish completed late last year, pushing its total haul to $3.5 billion in notes with that 11.75% rate. Read more.

Microsoft announced a multi-year, multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) natural language processor, marking the third investment by the cloud giant into the rapidly ascending AI vendor. The news also comes on the heels of Microsoft citing greater use of AI in taking a billion-dollar charge tied to extensive job cuts. Read more.

NetSPI acquired nVisium.

Chronosphere announced a $115 million Series C-1 funding round.

Cyberpion raised $27 million in Series A funding led by U.S. Venture Partners.

DataStax acquired Kaskada.

Apptio acquired Cloudwiry.

IonQ purchased Entangled Networks.

Cerberus Sentinel acquired RAN Security.

SailPoint purchased SecZetta.

Forter acquired Immue.

Cloudian closed $60 million in new funding.

Rubrik surpassed $500 million annual recurring revenue.

Gemba announced an $18 million Series A funding round led by Parkway VC.

CYGNVS emerged from stealth with $55 million in Series A funding.

Sentra raised $30 million in Series A funding.

Saviynt raised $205 million in growth funding from AB Private Credit Investors’ Tech Capital Solutions group.

Harness acquired Propelo.

Strata Identity announced a $26 million Series B funding round.

Mitel acquired Atos Unify.

Crux raised $50 million in additional venture funding led by Two Sigma and Goldman Sachs.

Iron Bow Technologies acquired GuardSight.

Mirantis acquired Shipa.

Nobl9 raised $15.8 million in funding led by ServiceNow and Cisco Investments.

Yobi announced $2.37 million in seed funding.