John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, at the 2015 CGI Annual Meeting in New York.

John Chambers, the ex-CEO of Cisco who spent 20 years running the networking giant before stepping down in 2015, is turning his attention to venture capital.

The self-funded firm, JC2 Ventures, will back at least a dozen companies that have the potential to go public, according to multiple media reports. Chambers will focus on areas like the Internet of Things, digital communications, security and agriculture.

The firm has 8 companies in its portfolio so far, including drone software developer Airware and social media management company Sprinklr.