Intel Capital, the corporate venturing arm of semiconductor technology provider Intel, announced yesterday it has invested $117m in a total of 14 startups covering artificial intelligence, communications, manufacturing and healthcare technology.
The deals were announced at Intel’s Global Summit and form part of a planned provision of $500m each year by Intel Capital.
Wendell Brooks, president of Intel Capital and chairman of the GCV Leadership Society, said the investments represent “areas that will become increasingly essential in coming years as the linchpins of a smarter, more connected society”.
The batch includes companies headquartered in Canada, Israel, the UK and the US, and the structure of the rounds represent the unit’s increasingly prevalent strategy of taking larger, more strategic positions in portfolio companies. It was lead investor in 12 of the 14 deals.
The investments include AI system-on-chip technology provider Zhuhai EEasy Technology, AI chipmaker Untether AI, e-commerce technology producer Cloudpick and SambaNova Systems, the developer of a computing platform designed to provide the basis of data analytics and machine learning applications.
Edge computing software platform operator Pixeom, ethernet device maker Tibit Communications, 3D gaming platform Polystream, brand-focused networking platform Mighty Networks, healthcare analytics platform operator Medical Informactics and pathology technology provider Reveal Biosciences also received funding.
The investments were filled out by enterprise AI technology producer Landing AI, engineering simulation software provider OnScale, semiconductor technology producer Qolibri and ProteanTecs, a developer of chip telemetry for electronic systems.
Brooks said: “Intel has driven disruption for the last 50 years, changing the way we live by making compute ubiquitous. Intel Capital is continuing that legacy of disruption with these investments.”
During the summit, the unit also announced an investment in HBCU.vc, a non-profit organisation that helps teach Hispanic students and students from historically black colleges and universities about VC and entrepreneurship.
Intel and Intel Capital are partnering HBCU.vc to offer mentoring, training and real-world experience for its members. Intel Capital had provided a total of $391m across 89 companies in 2018, of which 38 were new investments and 51 follow-on deals.
Stay tuned for coverage of all those individual deals on Global Corporate Venturing.