Networking equipment giant Cisco has acquired the Banaglore –based IT Security firm Pawaa Software Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount. It’s the first acquisition of Cisco in India.
As part of the deal the entire Pawaa team will join Cisco’s Software Platform Group and the founder Prakash Baskaran will be appointed as Chief Technology Officer for Cisco’s security solutions division.
Prakash, a serial entrepreneur who founded five tech companies viz, eResults, Turbo Career Software Services and Springtel in the areas of VoIP services, HR/CRM solutions and B2B marketplaces founded Pawaa in 2007. Prakash holds an MS from University of Akron and an MBA from Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
Pawaa was part of Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence (Cisco EIR) in 2014, an incubation programme supporting early-stage business-to-business companies. It supports entrepreneurs working on disruptive technology ideas in the fields of Big Data analytics, cloud computing, enterprise security and smart cities.
Cisco executive vice-president and chief development officer Pankaj Patel was quoted by The Hindu Business Line as saying: “Security is a bigger opportunity for India than IT.
“There is a shortage of hundreds of thousands of security professionals globally and India can solve that problem,” he added.
