Intel, a US-listed chip maker, has set up a $100m corporate venturing fund to help integrate human-like sensing technology into devices.
Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and mergers and acquisitons organisation, will manage the Intel Capital Experiences and Perceptual Computing Fund that will invest the $100m over the next two to three years.
Its first deal from the fund was as part of a consortium investing $14.5m in the series A round for Canada-based Thalmic Labs, the maker of a wearable gesture control device called MYO. The other investors were venture capital firms Spark Capital, Formation 8, First Round Capital and FundersClub, and angel investors Paul Graham, founder of accelerator Y Combinator (YC), and Marc Benioff, chief executive of software provider Salesforce.
Thalmic graduated from YC this year – the accelerator provides $20,000 in return for a 2% to 10% equity stake.
More broadly, the Intel fund will invest in software and applications, such as broader touch, imaging, gesture, voice and emotion sensing and biometrics.
Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice-president, said: “Devices with human-like senses – the ability to see, hear and feel much like people do – has long been a subject of science fiction but is now within reach given recent innovations in compute power and camera technology.
“This new fund will invest in start-ups and companies enabling these experiences, helping them with the business development support, global business network and technology expertise needed to scale for worldwide use.”
Intel announced its perceptual computing initiative last year and said its Perceptual Computing Software Developer Kit (SDK) has been downloaded more than 10,000 times. It had already launched the Perceptual Computing Challenge, an early kick-off contest for developers to create innovative applications using the SDK with up to $1m in awards.
The Intel Capital Experiences and Perceptual Computing Fund will complement the existing Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund. Intel Capital has invested a significant portion of the $300m Ultrabook Fund in innovative system component technologies in areas such as audio, touch, battery, display, sensor and wireless connectivity to make Intel-based computing devices thinner, lighter, more secure and responsive.