Cisco plans to accelerate its investments into communications in the coming two to three years. They have recently announced that they will give $150 million to start-up companies in this time frame. Senior vice president for corporate development, Hilton Romanski, explained that this Internet-based focus will complement other investing themes that include big data and connecting mobile devices.

Cisco Investments is becoming on par with mid-sized venture capital firms with this investment strategy and with the $100 million that Cisco said in January that they would deploy to other start-ups.

Cisco invested $7 million in Everything, a London-based company that connects products to the Internet, and a $14.5 funding round for Ayla Networks, a California based company that helps companies to monitor devices using the Internet.

Cisco also plans to increase its investments in Alchemist Accelerator, which is a San Jose, California-based incubator for start-up companies.