Bosch Group’s corporate venturing unit has helped Netherlands-based Intrinsic ID, a spin-off from Philips’ incubation programme in 2008, raise €5m ($6.7m).
Robert Bosch Venture Capital led the round on Wednesday last week, which was joined by venture firm Prime Ventures. Intrinsic-ID provides security for intellectual property and software.
Claus Schmidt, managing director of RBVC, said: "An increasingly connected world demands strict rules for authentication and protection against cloning, counterfeiting and tampering. We believe that Intrinsic-ID’s unique solution has the characteristics of becoming a key technology for the Internet of Things and that it is therefore of great strategic importance. Intrinsic-ID offers compelling and proven security solutions to a growing customer base and we are looking forward to providing our support to a highly promising venture."
Intrinsic-ID was spun off from Royal Philips Electronics in 2008 by Prime Ventures, as one of five technology ventures purchased from Philips’ incubator programme. Philips took a stake in the fund for Prime Technology Ventures along with venture firms Adams Street Partners and Parcom Capital, backed by ING.
The other four companies spun off from Philips were automate lighting company amBX, watermarking and finger printing company Civolution, biometric verification company priv-ID and human to computer interaction company Serious Toys
Sake Bosch, managing partner of Prime, said: "Since its spin-out from Philips by Prime Ventures in 2008, we are pleased to see that Intrinsic-ID established itself as the leader in security applications based on its patented Hardware Intrinsic Security (HIS) technology. As we see continued strong growth with existing customers as well as new growth opportunities within the mobile services space, we are happy to give substantial follow-up to our initial investment."