VentureBeat

ConSentry, a Silicon Valley startup that says its Internet network switches are more efficient than those of giant incumbent Cisco, has raised a $21 million round of funding.

Switches are components that route traffic from through the wider Internet network.

However, large corporations that buy switches to route their traffic often demand security feature to control access (sometimes called Network Access Control). As networks have become faster, security has become more of a challenge, Consentry said.

ConSentry’s switches are designed from the ground up to include NAC that can continuously control the access levels of users on a network, even at hard-wired LAN speeds. Contractors using a company’s network, for example, would have their privileges set when first logging on, but the network would continously monitor their behavior — not allowing suspicious behavior during the session.

NAC is a growing market, with more customers demanding high-level security for their networks. ConSentry made news earlier this year, when two schools each replaced several dozen Cisco switches with ConSentry products.

Smaller competitors also focusing on NAC include Rainier.

The $21 million funding is Consentry’s fourth round. It was led by new investor Teachers’ Private Capital. Other funds participated, including previous backers Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, INVESCO Private Capital and DAG Ventures, and new investors Translink Capital and NCD Investors.

Consentry, based in Milpitas, Calif., has almost 100 employees, and has taken about $72 million in funding to date.

Cast Iron Systems, a Mountain View, Calif. company that sells “application integration appliances,” has raised $16 million in a fifth round of capital.

The funding is notable because it continues a surprising trend of co-investing between Sequoia Capital — one of the most respected, but secretive venture firms in Silicon Valley — and an obscure hedge fund called Artis Capital.

The two companies have declined comment on the relationship. But it’s widely known that David Lamond, the son of a well-known Sequoia partner Pierre Lamond has worked at Artis. Artis was allowed to invest alongside Sequoia in video-sharing company YouTube, and went on to make a killing when YouTube was sold to Google for $1.6 billion. Normally, you’d chalk this up to coincidence, because family ties exist in every industry. However, Artis’ involvement is unusual because hedge funds rarely participate in early-stage investments of technology start-ups. Most firms would consider it a big privilege to invest alongside Sequoia, because it sees some of the best deals. Indeed, one of Artis’ partners, Stuart Peterson raised eyebrows shortly after the YouTube sale by paying $20 million to buy Andre Agassi’s Tiburon, Calif. estate after the YouTube sale.

The Cast Iron funding was first reported by PEHub two weeks ago.

Lehman Brothers Venture Capital led the round, which included return backers Sequoia Capital, Artis Capital Management, Norwest Venture Partners and Invesco Private Capital.

Cast Iron has now raised about $60 million in funding since 2001.

VentureWire followed up with a story this morning. Here’s a good description of what Cast Iron does:

Cast Iron Systems’ appliances integrate information from one application into another, saving its customers the time and expense of developing a homegrown solution or entering the information manually…

Although its products work with a wide range of applications, Cast Iron Systems works closely with certain software vendors such as Salesforce.com Inc., SAP AG and Oracle Corp. to make products geared at integrating software from those companies, in an effort to get people to begin using the product to integrate those applications and then up-selling later when a customer wants to expand the number of endpoints the appliance connects…Cast Iron faces competition from software-based application integration products such as Red Hat Inc.’s JBoss and Tibco Software Inc.

(UPDATED: See below.)

Masimo, an Irvine, Calif., maker of non-invasive patient-monitoring products, expects to raise nearly a quarter-billion dollars in an IPO. (The company’s latest filing statement is here.) That IPO take is almost $100 billion higher than Masimo first proposed when it filed the offering on April 17, and would value the company at almost $1 billion — $950.7 million, to be exact, if the offering prices at the upper end of its range.

It’s worth noting, however, that Masimo isn’t going to capture but a fraction of those proceeds. While the company is registering 13.7 million shares for sale, it is issuing only 1.5 million shares itself. Another 10.4 million shares are held by selling stockholders, who will hold onto the resulting funds, and a further 1.8 million are reserved for overallotment sales. Given that Masimo hopes to price the offering between $16 and $18 per share, it can pull down, at most, only $59.4 million. Which is still a nice chunk of change, but not quite as eye-catching as the initial figures seemed to suggest.

Masimo isn’t your typical venture business. Founded in 1989, the company focused on a new technology for measuring oxygen levels in blood known as pulse oximetry. Masimo launched its first products in 1996, and now makes a variety of bedside, handheld and remote monitors, as well as those sensors that a doctor might clip onto your fingertip or toe while you’re in the hospital or undergoing an outpatient procedure. The company posted revenue of $244.3 million last year, and has been profitable for two years.

Masimo’s major non-executive shareholders include Invesco Private Capital, Moore Capital Management, DSV Partners IV Limited Partnership, and entities associated with Franklin Templeton Group.

UPDATED: Rewritten in sections to clarify the distinction between Masimo’s issued shares and those of selling stockholders and to include the total post-offering valuation for the company.