US-based semiconductor and data technology provider Intel has formed an intrapreneurial incubator called Emerging Growth and Incubation, Silicon Valley Business Journal (SVBJ) has reported.
The scheme will be overseen by corporate vice-president Sagi Ben Moshe (pictured) and will back employees’ innovative ideas in a bid to identify a unicorn (a company with a $1bn valuation or more) but its ultimate aim is to create a new division inside Intel, Ben Moshe told SVBJ.
Ben Moshe joined Emerging Growth and Incubation in January 2019 as general manager, and Intel revealed the incubator’s existence internally in August. It has received more than 500 applications to date and about 20 have resulted in pitches.
The incubator chose a first cohort this month and it consists of eight groups based in Intel offices in India, Israel, Malaysia, Vietnam and across the US. Some employees have also expressed interest in working directly with the teams in question.
The projects include a tool that helps deaf users to communicate more easily with hearing people, technology that accelerates gaming speed and a verification procedure that protects against disinformation.
A coding error automation software tool, cryptography-based data security technology and a small business-focused robotic automation system are also among the proposals selected.
The participants are set to work with the incubator for three months to assess the feasibility of their businesses in aspects such as engineering, finance, legal, marketing, sales, and user experience and interface.
Successful candidates could receive “hundreds of millions of dollars” of funding from Intel in stages, as a startup would, according to Ben Moshe. He added that the initiative is being modelled after Intel’s interactions with external entrepreneurs through corporate venturing arm Intel Capital.
Photo of Sagi Ben Moshe courtesy of LinkedIn.
