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You’ve heard it before so we’ll say it again, big data is the new black. New Jersey based Connotate helps companies like AP, Reuters and Dow Jones to scour and analyze unstructured data from thousands of web sites in real time. Last month it made its first acquisition, competitor Fetch Technologies, and added a new CEO. Today announced a $7 million series B led by Castille Ventures, Prism VentureWorks, and .406 Ventures.

Connotate is going after the much hyped big data market, pulling in massive volumes of information and combing through it to spit out a the few nuggets of valuable data. Thompson Reuters, for example, has a team of more than 100 analysts using Connotate to pull in real time data in over 50 languages that they can use to break news and update their market perspective.

“Connotate’s unique and differentiated technology has positioned it to capitalize on the explosion of Big Data and enterprises’ growing appreciation of the value that highly scalable data monitoring and collection can bring,” said Nina Saberi, Founder & Managing Partner of Castile Ventures.

Part of the appeal of Connotate’s technology is the wide array of industries that can put it to use. It can be used to create a database of physicians, mine property listing for real estate deals, extract automobile details from classifieds for car dealers, and monitor breaking court websites for breaking news. As the volume of information produced each day on the web continues to skyrocket, it seems like investors appetite for big data firms is keeping pace.

Here’s a look back at our coverage of Connotate’s $5.25 million series A round in 2010. And for all your Turnpike travelers out there, not only is the company based in Jersey, but its built on top of technology developed at the local Rutgers University.

Filed under: deals, enterprise

Network tech giant Cisco has acquired video optimization software company BNI Video for $99 million in cash, the company announced today.

BNI Video helps internet service providers manage their video services, such as entitlement, billing and quality control. As VentureBeat previously reported, BNI Video was a good solution for older cable providers unable to keep up with the growing trend of TV moving online.

Cisco said it plans to integrate BNI Video’s technology into its Videoscape service, which will make it useful for service providers who are beginning to deliver more video over IP to consumers.

BNI Video is one of many companies Cisco has purchased to strengthen Videoscape. In August 2010, the network equipment company acquired online video distributor ExtendMedia to enhance its video-over-IP capabilities. And in February, Cisco purchased Inlet Technologies to boost Videoscape’s video encoding abilities.

Founded in 2009, the Boxborough, Mass.-based startup previously raised a total of $16 million in funding from Cisco Systems, Comcast Interactive Capital, Time Warner Investments, Charles River Ventures and Castile Ventures. Cisco is scheduled to close its acquisition of BNI Video in January 2012.

Filed under: deals, enterprise, VentureBeat