Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of mobile semiconductor producer Qualcomm, launched the $100m AI Fund yesterday that will invest in artificial intelligence (AI) technology developers.
The initiative fits into Qualcomm’s strategy of tapping into 5G, the next iteration of mobile communications networks that offers significantly higher speeds than current connections. Qualcomm expects these speeds to drive adoption of AI capabilities on mobile devices.
The fund has already made its first investment, revealing its participation in a $28m series A round for Israel-based computer vision technology developer AnyVision that was raised in July this year and also featured appliance maker Robert Bosch.
AnyVision is working on plug-and-play facial, body and object recognition systems that can be embdedded within existing sensors, enabling equipment such as surveillance cameras to index and analyse any images the sensor picks up.
Quinn Li, senior vice-president of ventures at Qualcomm Technologies and global head of Qualcomm Ventures, said: “Qualcomm Ventures is proud to invest in the future of AnyVision and many other key players in the AI industry.
“This investment builds on our long history of successful AI investments, including Cruise Automation, Brain, Clarifai, Prospera, SenseTime and Retail Next.
“Through the AI Fund, we will continue to seek out startups, with a focus on autonomous cars, robotics, computer vision and internet of things, who are developing new AI applications, advanced machine learning technologies and AI and machine learning platforms across different verticals.”
