Omkaram “Om” Nalamasu, senior vice-president and chief technology officer for chip and display designer Applied Materials (Amat), and president of its corporate venture capital arm, Applied Ventures (AV), told the audience about the corporate’s and AV’s strategies surrounding deeptech.
As a CVC investor, Nalamasu said AV sought to add value to co-investors and startups leveraging Amat’s $14.6bn of revenue, $2.1bn research and development spending, 13,300 patents – more than four patents per day – and over 22,000 employees in 18 countries in 2019.
Founded in 2001, AV was one of the most stable CVC units, according to Nalamasu, who said: “We provide patient capital and have invested in 85 companies, investing up to $50m per year globally.”
The unit’s investments spanned 13 countries, with joint investment funds in South Korea and New York, with others in progress. With “lab-to-fab” scaling and Amat’s global network, AV helped portfolio companies grow.
Nalamasu added that the unit’s investments focused on identifying materials engineering high-value problems, investing in suppliers, innovating new business models to meet the needs of new ecosystems.
One example of how AV has been working with entrepreneurs and startups was internet-of-things technology developer Adesto Technologies, which the unit backed from series A through to initial public offering, also bringing in syndicate partners.
“We have had 35 exits – of which three IPOs happened in the past 18 months,” noted Nalamasu.
