One of the most exciting things about being a strategic investor is getting deep insight into what’s happening in growing markets like IoT or big data. This kind of exposure and market intelligence is valuable not just for Cisco as a whole, but also for our vast network of customers and partners.
We recently hosted a deep dive on our IoT investment strategy for one of our leading channel partners, Trace3, and a customer we both share, Terumo BCT. Trace3 is a Cisco Gold partner that provides cloud computing, big data intelligence, IoT consulting and data center solutions. Terumo BCT is a global leader in blood component, therapeutic apheresis and cellular solutions.
Cisco Investments’s Amit Chaturvedy, lead for IoT mergers & acquisitions and investments, led a conversation around our strategy for investing and acquiring in IoT. Having been an early and consistent investor, with over 20 investments in the past five years, Cisco Investments has a lot of experience in IoT. We found a lot of common experiences with the Terumo team and further discussed some of the implications it would have on Terumo’s business.
We then shifted to having three of Cisco Investments’ portfolio companies present to Trace3 and Terumo:
Kii Systems, an IoT Platform company, provides a scalable backend platform for enterprise applications, consumer apps, mobile games and the IoT.
N3N, a IoT Visualization Platform, allows users to detect problems quickly, monitor business operations and predict potential issues on a single plane of glass.
Phunware, a Mobile Application development platform, provides location analytics and capabilities to help brands manage and monetize their mobile users.
After 5 hours on this topic, the last session was just as interactive and lively as the first. I can happily report that we received lots of positive feedback and are already working on several follow-up discussions.
Our portfolio companies are looking for more direct customer access, and our customers are eager to gain timely insights into the disruptive trends within their respective industries. Customer briefings such as this one with Terumo BCT are a win-win for both!