Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of semiconductor producer Intel, has invested at least $132m in a dozen technology companies this year.
The newly-reported companies joining Intel Capital’s portfolio are Axonne, Lilt, MemVerge, ProPlus Electronics, Retrace, SmileSnap, Spectrum Materials and Xsight Labs covering artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous computing and chip design as well as software.
The corporate had previously been reported for its investments in Anodot, Astera Labs, Hypersonix and KFBio but included them in its roundup of 11 companies (excluding SmileSnap, which was reported separately at the same time), as Intel Capital said it was on track to invest between $300m and $500m in technology companies this year despite the coronavirus affecting the economy.
Last year, Intel Capital invested $466m in 36 new investments and 35 follow-on investments, led 72% of its deals and had 22 successful exits.
Wendell Brooks, senior vice-presiden of Intel and president of Intel Capital, said: “Each of our recent investments is pushing the boundaries in areas such as AI, data analytics, autonomous systems and semiconductor innovation.”
Intel Capital has also been increasing the diversity of its workforce to enhance innovation, and its investments reflect this. In 2019, Intel Capital made 32% of its 36 new investments in startups led by women, underrepresented minorities, members of the LGBTQ community, entrepreneurs living with disabilities and veterans, up from 18%in 2018, and signed a partnership with HBCUvc, a venture capital and technology entrepreneurship foundation for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs).
In 2015, Intel Capital announced its goal to invest $125m over five years in companies with diverse leadership. That goal was achieved two years early in 2018; as of the first quarter of 2020, Intel Capital reached a new milestone, surpassing $300m invested since publicly announcing its initiative.
The corporate’s newly unveiled investments are:
- Axonne, a US-based developer of ethernet network connectivity for cars to integrate autonomous driving sensors and displays. Pitchbook said Axonne raised $9m in its series A round in March with venture capital investors including A&E Investments, Oriza Ventures and TransLink Capital.
- Lilt, a US-based artificial intelligence-powered language translation software and services provider. Lilt raised $25m in its series B round led by Intel Capital with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Zetta Venture Partners and XSeed Capital.
Mark Rostick, vice-president and senior managing director at Intel Capital, has joined Lilt’s board. The series B round brings the total raised by the company to $37.5m and will help fund additional development in the company’s enterprise translation software and further research in its natural language processing technology, as well as accelerate its go-to-market strategy.
A regulatory filing showed Lilt had raised $9.5m at the end of 2018 after a $3m round two years before.
Spence Green, Lilt CEO and co-founder, said: “We met Intel Capital through Intel. Last summer we started working with Intel to rethink [its] main enterprise localisation workflow. Our technology-enabled services have enabled Intel to increase quality and turnround time while reducing costs by 40% year-on-year. As the commercial program accelerated, a deeper partnership discussion began. By late last year we decided to cement the partnership with an investment.”
Green had first started working on machine translation at Google in 2011.
Mark Rostick, vice-president and senior managing director at Intel Capital, added: “Lilt excels at combining machine translation with human translators, and is able to scale globally, regardless of language.”
- MemVerge, a US-based memory storage provider. MemVerge has raised $19m in a round led by Intel Capital, with participation from networking equipment maker Cisco’s Cisco Investments unit, cloud data management company NetApp and semiconductor producer SK Hyni. The round included existing backers Gaorong Capital, Glory Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, LDV Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Northern Light Venture Capital. The investment will be used to advance the development of MemVerge’s memory machine software and build out the company’s sales and marketing functions.
Mark Rostick, vice-president and senior managing director at Intel Capital, said: “With MemVerge’s memory machine technology and Intel’s Optane persistent memory, enterprises will be able to more efficiently and quickly gain insights from enormous amounts of data in near-real time.”
Brad Anderson, executive vice-president at NetApp, added: “MemVerge’s software combines persistent memory, hyperconverged architecture, and container orchestration, all critical components to support data-intensive applications including AI, machine learning and intelligent analytics.”
Heejin Chung, head of venture investment at SK Hynix, said: “We are pleased to invest in MemVerge and believe that, together with our leading expertise in building memory technology, we will foster innovation in this field.”
- ProPlus Electronics, a China-based electronic design automation company specialising in chips. ProPlus raised an undisclosed amount from Intel Capital having raised $1.5m back in 2007, according to a regulatory filing.
- Retrace, a US-based dental data analytics company, which raised an undisclosed amount.
- SmileSnap, a US-based virtual consultation and appointments platform for dentists and orthodontists, has raised $500,000 in its seed round. The startup was founded in 2018 by Greg Pellegrom, a 17-year veteran in dental and orthodontic sales, together with Jameson Stafford, who most recently served as vice-president of corporate development at Catalytic, that had raised more than $50m from investors including Intel Capital and NEA.
- Spectrum Materials a China-based specialty gas and material supplier for semiconductor makers. Founded in 2009, Spectrum Materials said it had raised an undisclosed amount led by Intel Capital. The funding will be used to develop new products, upgrade production lines, and expand overseas markets in Japan, South Korea, and the US.
Tianlin Wang, managing director and China country manager of Intel Capital, said: “By collaborating closely with our ecosystem partners, we are helping our customers advance their technology.”
- Xsight Labs, an Israel-based developer of chipset designs that enhance scalability, performance and efficiency in data centres. The size of Intel’s funding was undisclosed but other investors in Xsight include Avigdor Vilentz, who backed Galileo, sold to Marvel, Annapurna Labs, sold to Amazon, and Havana Labs to Intel last year. Xsight has reportedly raised $25m to date including from Microsoft’s corporate venturing unit, M12, and Valor Equity Partners.
Previously announced deals include:
- Anodot, a US-based business-monitoring software developer, which secured $35m in an Intel Capital-led series C round last month also featuring SoftBank Ventures Asia and Samsung Next, investment units for telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank and consumer electronics producer Samsung.
- US-based smart connectivity system producer Astera Labs completed a series B round of undisclosed size last month that included Intel Capital, as well as VC firm Sutter Hill Ventures and private investors Avigdor Willenz and Ron Jankov.
- Intel Capital led an $11.5m series A round for Hypersonix, the creator of an artificial intelligence-driven autonomous analytics platform for consumer commerce data, at the beginning of May.
- Konfoong Biotech (KFBio), a China-based cancer diagnostics system provider in which Intel Capital led a $14.1m B round having already supplied it with artificial intelligence technology in April.
