VENTURE CAPITAL POST

British startup Evrythng that aims to give all things in the world a unique URL has received $7 million Series A funding from Cisco which said that by 2020 the company would contain 50 billion "things."

Mountain View, California-based cybersecurity startup Shape Security pocketed $40 million in a venture funding round led by Norwest Ventures and Sierra Ventures to beef up its product offerings and its sales team.

San Jose, US-based networking giant Cisco invested $6 million in the Badia Impact Fund to back tech startups in Jordan as part of a $10 million venture capital investment already committed in May 2011.

San Diego, US-based software investor JMI Equity led a $38-million Series D venture capital round for the expansion and development of Utah-based work flow management software company AtTask.

Cyber attacks increased 14% last year as hackers look to firms in the pharmaceuticals, mining and electronics industries which are rich repositories of intellectual property, the Financial Times reported.

San Francisco-based mobile security company Mocana has received $15 million from a funding round led by GE Ventures, to build out the company’s products that prevent hacking of Wi-Fi-enabled objects.

Dealogic data showed a big increase in the acquisition activity of big tech companies in Israel, pushing the Middle Eastern country to become a global player in the innovative tech arena.

Hong Kong-based tech startup Multichannel raised USD3 million in a seed round from angel investors in Asia and Europe to be used for the improvement of the company's marketing spend tracker.

Compass-EOS on Monday announced that it has raised USD42 million from its latest funding round. Top-tiered investors including global venture capital funds, service providers and network suppliers have participated in the round.

Cisco is expected to report higher quarterly profit for its fiscal first quarter of 2014. The report may uncover any evidence of sales pressure from the U.S. federal government shutdown and weakness in China.

BlackBerry, a Canada based struggling smartphone manufacturer, had been more open to a company breakup amid concerns that its biggest shareholder Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd would not be able to find funds or partners for a proposed USD4.7 billion buyout deal.

Google, SAP and Cisco had been in discussions to possible acquire struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry, said a Reuters report.

Cisco said it would acquire Whiptail for USD 415 million in cash.

Cisco Systems, Inc has opened a new business unit called Services Security Practice to expand in the security business market with tech industry veteran Bryan Palma as the unit's general manager.

Verizon Foundation teamed up with UC San Diego for the treatment of tuberculosis, while Cisco launched MR34 to aid the growing demand for infrastructure.