Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of US-listed semiconductor company Intel, has made two investments in China by backing United Information Technology (UIT), a former subsidiary of Cogo Group founded in 2001, and B-Soft, a software provider for hospitals.
The investment amounts were undisclosed but came from Intel Capital’s $500m Intel Capital China Technology Fund II, while the unit has invested more than $500m in more than 100 Chinese information technology companies since 1998.
For UIT, the deal came 12 months after it presented its cloud storage products at Intel’s developer forum.
In 2009, UIT and Intel conducted a research and development joint co-operation based on Intel’s memory chips.
Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital, said the group would do 12 deals in China this year and added: "With the largest internet user base and population in the world, China presents unique scale challenges that Intel Capital is helping to address through our investments in innovative Chinese technology companies."
Ian Yang, president of Intel China, said: "Intel sees unparalleled innovative capabilities in China, where storage and healthcare are among the industries that are seeing a boom of opportunities."
Yang added that Intel was the only technology company joining a project called the "open data centre" set up by China Mobile and China Life.