2001
Alon Weinberg, Director
Iren Reznikov, Manager
Cisco, a Fortune 100 company with around 70,000 employees worldwide, has a cohesive strategy to capture and build upon innovation utilizing a growth strategy based on identifying and driving market transitions. The Cisco Investments and Corporate Development organization focuses on venture investments and acquisitions that help Cisco to capture these market transitions. It is a global organization
with footprints across North America, the EMEA, Israel, the APJ, and China. Israel is considered an important geographical point producing category-defining companies in areas that are strategic to the company.
Cisco segments acquisitions into three categories: market acceleration, market expansion, and new market entry. The target companies might bring different types of assets to Cisco, including great talent and technology, mature products and solutions, or new go-to-market and business models. Through its investment pillar, Cisco tracks, invests in, and engages with the most disruptive startup companies. The ground operations in Israel are always on the lookout for investment and acquisition opportunities in areas that are strategic to Cisco, across cybersecurity, enterprise networking, cloud, collaboration, and silicon. It has R&D centers across Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Netanya, and Caesarea, employing 700+ employees responsible for developing technologies for Cisco's flagship products.
Over the past 20 years, Cisco’s Investments and Corporate Development Org has been very active in the Israeli venture and M&A ecosystem including 16 acquisitions (#2 acquirer of Israeli companies in the country), 30+ venture investments, as well as 5 LP positions in leading venture funds. "Unlike many other corporations where M&A and venture investment activities are separated, we have responsibility for both investments and M&A," says Iren Reznikov, M&A and Venture Investments Manager. "What drives our activities in the market is the strategic alignment we find with startups in our areas of interest. We are collaborative and flexible, and are always open to finding the right model of partnership with the startups we engage with.
Photo courtesy of Cisco
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