Intel Capital Investments to Help Expand the Mobile Ecosystem
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
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Intel Capital to invest $26 million in six mobility companies around
the globe.
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New investments will help drive continued innovation in mobile
hardware, software and applications ecosystems.
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Technologies bring new user experiences across a continuum of devices.
BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS--Intel
Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment organization, today
announced six new investments to drive continued innovation across the
mobile hardware, software and applications ecosystems. The new deals
total approximately $26 million and include open source mobile software
solutions company Borqs; location-based mapping platform and tools
provider CloudMade; QuantumFilm™-based image sensor vendor InVisage;
open source online video platform Kaltura; online authentication
provider SecureKey Technologies; and unified communications and
collaboration service software provider VisionOSS Solutions.
The six companies each have developed innovative technologies to enhance
the user experience across a continuum of devices, including handhelds,
tablets and laptops, that run a variety of operating systems including
MeeGo and Android*.
"As more devices compute and connect to the Internet, it creates an
opportunity to deliver new end-user capabilities by supporting the
development of mobile infrastructure, applications, services and
components for Intel® architecture-based platforms," said Arvind
Sodhani, president, Intel Capital and executive vice president, Intel.
"These six investments represent key growth areas of the mobile
ecosystem and will contribute to bringing important features to the next
generation of mobile devices."
"These Intel Capital investments represent innovative companies that
Intel is working with to help advance our mobile platform initiatives
across smart device segments including handheld, tablet and notebook
businesses," said Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and
general manager of the company's Ultra Mobile Group. "The investments,
coupled with Intel's expanding set of capabilities in silicon, software
and communications, will help the company accelerate plans across a
variety of smart devices and market segments."
Details on the new investments follow:
Borqs
Ltd. (Borqs) (Beijing) is an Android software integrator for mobile
devices. The company works with name-brand smart phone OEMs,
semi-conductor companies, and mobile operators to enhance the Android
system to meet their requirements. With expertise ranging from kernel,
device-level drivers to top-level user interfaces, Borqs Android
solution has been deployed in more than 30 Android mobile devices for
W-CDMA networks and TD-SCDMA networks. Borqs Android solution is Google
CTS compliant. The investment from Intel Capital, subject to the
satisfaction of closing conditions, aligns with Intel's port of choice
strategy to support multiple operating systems across a variety of
devices and will be used by the company for business development.
CloudMade
(Menlo Park, Calif.) was founded in 2007 to enable developers to build
location-enabled applications and services. The company provides
application developers with a range of innovative tools and application
programming interfaces to enable the creation of unique location-based
applications across all major web and mobile platforms. Today there are
more than 16,000 developers using CloudMade's tools to create
applications for mobile and Web consumers. The investment from Intel
Capital will be used to further strengthen the platform and to work with
developers to provide them with an unparalleled suite of tools designed
for their specific needs. CloudMade will be certified under the Intel's
AppUp™ application store.
Kaltura
(New York) provides a widely adopted open source online video platform.
More than 100,000 media and entertainment companies, enterprises, small-
and medium-size businesses, educational institutions, service providers,
platform vendors and system integrators use Kaltura's flexible platform
to enhance their websites, Web services and Web platforms with advanced
customized rich-media functionalities that are delivered through any
connected device. Kaltura's features and products enable the easy
deployment of custom workflows involving video, photo and audio
creation, ingestion, publishing, management, distribution, engagement,
monetization and analysis. The investment will be used to enhance
rich-media functionalities on tablets, mobile phones and other connected
devices, with a special emphasis on supporting the MeeGo™ mobile
operating system and Intel's AppUp application store.
InVisage
Technologies, Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.) is harnessing the power of
custom-designed semiconductor materials to develop QuantumFilm, the
world's first commercial quantum dot-based material for image sensors.
QuantumFilm replaces silicon as the light capture material to enable
high-fidelity, high-resolution images from such handheld devices as
camera phones and digital cameras. Imaging is becoming an increasingly
important capability across notebooks, handhelds and tablets. InVisage
will use this funding round -- led by Intel Capital -- to bring its
products and technology into mass production.
SecureKey
Technologies, Inc. (Toronto) designs hardware and software solutions
to enable the strong cryptographic capabilities of debit, credit and
identity smartcards -- including those within Near Field
Communication-based phones -- for online authentication and online
purchases. SecureKey's solutions provide a powerful user experience that
can be delivered across platforms improving both the security and
convenience of online transactions. The company's focus on secure
transactions aligns with Intel's vision of security as a key pillar of
computing across all platforms, as more peoples' lives are conducted
online. The investment will be used to drive growth and expansion.
VisionOSS
Solutions (Reading, UK) provides a unified communications and
collaboration (UC&C) service delivery and management platform to service
providers and large enterprise customers that are planning to, or have
already launched, complex, multi-cluster IP-PBX and UC&C architectures.
The VOSS technology is a real-time, fully automated, scalable and
centralized UC&C service delivery and management platform, which reduces
complexity, speeds implementation, and cuts costs for the fulfillment of
UC&C services. VOSS will use the new funds to fuel its growth, and to
support the evolution of its technology which has already been deployed
in a significant number of tier-one service providers.
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, makes equity
investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide.
Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware,
software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health,
consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing and cleantech. Since
1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$9.8 billion in over 1,100
companies in 48 countries. In that timeframe, 189 portfolio companies
have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 258 were
acquired or participated in a merger. In 2010, Intel Capital invested
US$327 million in 119 investments with approximately 44 percent of funds
invested outside the U.S. and Canada. For more information on Intel
Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com.
Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the
United States and other countries.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Intel Capital
Amy Kircos, 480-552-8803
Amy.Kircos@intel.com
Maria
Cubeta, 415-591-4070
Maria.Cubeta@bm.com
Source: Intel Capital
News Provided by Acquire Media
Released Feb 14, 2011 • 12:00 AM EST
