AAA Intel backs 18 companies in 11 countries

Intel backs 18 companies in 11 countries

Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of semiconductor company Intel, has revealed its has invested $77m in 18 companies across 11 countries.

The deals were announced today at its 11th annual Intel Capital CEO Summit for more than 700 portfolio company chief executives and technology decision makers.

The new investments are US-based Adaptivity, Lilliputian Systems, Ortiva Wireless, SilkRoad, Videon Central, Verismo Networks, YuMe and Yummly.com; India’s Althea Systems; Israel-based Anobit; Brazil’s Boo-Box; Ukraine’s De Novo; Germany’s Iptego; Netherlands-based Layar; Russia’s Rock Flow Dynamics; Malaysia’s Select-TV; Taiwan’s Taifatech; and China’s Winchannel.

Four of the deals focus on internet-connected television. Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital (pictured), said this was one of the most exciting areas of technology as it allowed the individual to watch "what you want, when you want".

He added in a statement: "Innovation continues to thrive all over the world.

"Despite the economic environment, these 18 investments help advance next generation computing technologies aligning with Intel’s vision that more and more devices will compute and connect to the internet, called the compute continuum.

"The innovative technology developed by these companies supports the compute continuum from advancements in PCs [personal computers] and server trends, such as cloud computing to building out the ecosystem around smart TVs and smartphones."

However, he said Intel Capital had invested less money so far this year compared to 2009. Including the 18 deals and five follow-on investments to existing portfolio companies, Sodhani said the group had invested more than $200m versus $327m last year in 107 deals. The five follow-on investments were GainSpan, JackBe, Fonality, TeeTotal and Wortal.

But the firm had seen an increase in exits with 28 announced or completed this year compared to 12 in 2009. Sodhani said there had been 12 flotations and 16 acquisitions, compared to two initial public offerings and 10 trade sales last year.

The company has also been refining its strategy to lead more rounds and invest at an earlier stage as well as take board seats in order to tap into a greater number of serial entrepreneurs, senior executives said.

Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than $9.7bn in over 1,100 companies in 48 countries. In that period, 189 of its portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges round the world and 258 were acquired or participated in a merger.

Details (where available) about the new investments:

Adaptivity’s $7.2m series A round, which was the company’s first institutional financing, closed last month and was co-led by venture capital (VC) firms Noro-Moseley Partners and InterSouth Partners. The round was extended by $3m with Intel’s investment to a total of $10.3m.

Lilliputian Systems said that, in addition to Intel Capital taking an equity stake, it had signed a wafer manufacturing supply agreement with the chip company.  In April last year, Lilliputian closed a $28m round of funding from VCs Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers of Menlo Park, Atlas Venture, Fairhaven Capital, Rockport Capital, Stata Venture Partners, Altira Group and Argonaut Private Equity.

Ortiva Wireless said it had raised $8m in its series C round led by Intel Capital and joined by Comcast Interactive Capital, the corporate venturing unit of cable company Comcast, and VCs Artiman Ventures and Mission Ventures. Last month, Ortiva Wireless said in a regulatory filing it had raised $8m of a $10.1m round.

Silkroad said Intel Capital and Tenaya Capital (formerly known as Lehman Brothers Venture Partners), as well as VCs Foundation Capital, Azure Capital and SilkRoad Equity (which is run by the executive chairman of the portfolio company, Andrew Filipowski), had invested $40m to develop its recruitment software.  In May 2008, SilkRoad raised $54m in its previous venture round.

Videon said its funding came from Intel Capital’s Invest in America Technology Fund and would be used to expand its intellectual property portfolio associated with the smart TV segment.

Verismo Networks raised $17m from Intel Capital, as well as its previous, undisclosed seed investors.

In February, YuMe, a video advertising technology company, raised $25m from VCs Menlo Ventures, Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures and Khosla Ventures, having previously raised $9m in October 2007.

Yummly, which provides semantic food recipe search and recommendations, said it had raised $1.85m in its seed round from Intel Capital and VCs Harrison Metal Capital and First Round Capital and angel investors.

In July, Althea, an India-based social video browser startup that launched Shufflr.tv in the summer, raised $3m in its series A round from an undisclosed institutional venture capitalist.

Israel-based Anobit raised $32m from Intel Capital and undisclosed strategic and current investors to nearly double the total raised since launch to $70m.

De Novo said it had three other corporate partnerships: Phoenix Flow Systems, US Labs and Axiope, beyond Intel’s latest, undisclosed investment.De Novo’s majority owner, a technology holding comapny called KM Core, had acquired De Novo in September before selling a minority stake to Intel and the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank. Intel’s investment was undisclosed and IFC invested $3.5m.

Germany’s Iptego said Intel Capital’s investment would help the company expand from Germany into the US and Asia and was a second closing of series A round led by XAnge Private Equity, a VC subsidiary of La Banque Postale, one of the largest retail banks in France and fully owned subsidiary of La Poste.

Layar raised $14m in its second round of fundraising from Intel Capital and previous investors, having previously raised about $4.7m from VCs Sunstone Capital and Prime Technology Ventures. Dutch news provider Het Financieele Dagblad said Intel had invested $10m of the $14m.

Rock Flow Dynamics (RFD), a Russia-based software developer for finding oil resevoirs, raised $2m in its series A round from Intel Capital.

The (four out of) five follow-on rounds:

GainSpan in a regulatory filing earlier this month said it had raised $5m of a planned $20m round.

In September last year, GainSpan gained an undisclosed strategic investment from In-Q-Tel, which invests on behalf of the US government intelligence agencies, having closed its series B round at $20m in December 2007 from Intel Capital and VCs Opus Capital, New Venture Partners, OVP Venture Partners and Sigma Partners.

JackBe raised $5m in December 2008 in its series D round from Harbert Venture Partners, Core Capital Partners, Blue Chip Venture Company, Intel Capital, and Darby Technology Ventures, having raised $9.5m in its C round in October 2007. Its regulatory filing said it had raised a further $3.5m in April. 

In September 2008, Fonality, a provider of open source telephone services, raised $12m from VC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund with participation from existing investor Intel Capital.

In July 2008, Intel Capital invested $17m between three Indian companies, Wortal, Yatra.com and Emnet Samsar Media.

Exits:

Initial Public Offerings (2010)

  • Crucialtec (South Korea) – July 21
  • Smart Technologies (Canada) – July 15
  • China ITS (China) – July 15
  • HiSoft (China) – July 10
  • Motricity (US) – June 22
  • Tobesoft (South Korea) – May 31
  • Intrasoft (India) – April 12
  • Persistent Systems (India) – April 4
  • Calix (US) – March 24
  • Financial Engines (US) – March 16

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Accertify (acquired by American Express) – US (Nov. 10)
  • Omneon (acquired by Harmonic) – US (Sept. 15)
  • ArchRock (acquired by Cisco) – US (Sept. 10)
  • Telecomnet (acquired by Euronet) – Brazil (Aug. 31)
  • LuckyPai (acquired by Lotte) – China (Aug. 13)
  • InSync (acquired by RFID Invest) – US (July 15)
  • PGP (acquired by Symantec) – US (June 04)
  • Signacert (acquired by Harris) – US (May 28)
  • ClickandBuy (acquired by Deutsche Telekom) – Germany (Mar. 24)
  • Jajah (acquired by Telefonica) – US (Jan. 22)

 

 

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