At 12:20pm PT today, Intel’s Arvind Sodhani is going to announce that Intel Capital is investing $62 million dollars in 16 companies. This investment is part of a much larger portfolio that will see $355M invested just for 2014 alone. The announcement will be made during a press conference at the Intel Capital Global Summit in Los Angeles.
The recipients of this round of investments are from diverse sectors, ranging from Wearable Tech and Internet of Things (IoT), to big data analytics. All these sectors are typically backed by web services run on powerful servers that are powered by high-end Intel processors which represent the highest-margin chips Intel sells today.
Here is the list of companies that are getting funding this time: in the Wearable Tech (WT) category, we can find Avegant, Braigo Labs and Eyefluence. AnDapt, Audyssey, Incoming Media, INRIX, Screenovate Technologies and Thundersoft are mobility companies. Netspeed Systems and Reno Sub-systems develop system on a chip platforms (or SoC). Finally, the big data and cloud companies are Gigya, PilotTV, PrecisionHawk, Prelert and Stratoscale.
If you are not familiar with some of these companies, there is more information below, from the official press release:
New Devices/Wearable Computing
Avegant* (Redwood City, California), developing the next generation of wearable devices, is bringing to market the Glyph*, a mobile personal theater that uses a micromirror display with built-in premium audio. Glyph raised more than $1 million in its Kickstarter* campaign earlier this year.
Braigo Labs Inc.* (Palo Alto, California, U.S.), founded by 13-year-old entrepreneur and middle schooler Shubham Banerjee, provides scientific and technological services by researching and developing technology-based innovations and services. Its products include Braigo v1.0*, a Lego Braille printer that dramatically reduces the price of a printer from more than $2,000 to $350 for education, teaching and home-use purposes.
Eyefluence* (Reno, Nevada, U.S.) transforms intent into action through your eyes. The company’s robust, low-power, eye-tracking technology, with its iUi* interaction model, integrates into any augmented reality or virtual reality head-mounted display (HMD) to provide natural, intuitive eye tracking and control.
Mobility/Wireless
AnDAPT* (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) brings a new genre of analog adaptive products for multifunction sensor integration and integrated system power management, enabling enterprise customers to achieve lowest power consumption, smart power management, high integration, high system reliability and lower cost.
Audyssey* (Los Angeles, U.S.) is a leader in research-based audio technologies that correct acoustical problems to improve the sound quality of any device or listening environment. The company’s technologies are integrated into mobile apps and devices, TVs, automobiles, PCs and home theater products from industry-leading manufacturers.
Incoming Media* (Santa Clara, California, U.S. and Sydney, Australia) is a mobile video platform that uses predictive data analytics and intelligent content pre-loading to learn how a viewer consumes video on a mobile device and delivers a personalized mobile video experience with no interruption.
INRIX* (Kirkland, Washington, U.S.) leverages big data analytics and predictive technology to help automakers, corporate fleets, governments and news organizations reduce the economic and environmental toll of traffic congestion.
Screenovate Technologies* (Israel) offers mobile solutions that cover entertainment, productivity and education. Among other applications, its technology enables smartphone and tablet users to wirelessly beam movies, games, presentations or other content from their mobile devices to their TVs or other large displays.
Thundersoft* (China and Taiwan) is a mobile OS core technology and solution provider that accelerates product development by providing leading technology and services, specifically for Android* smartphone and tablet services. [Investment subject to satisfaction of closing conditions.]
Advancing Microprocessor and SoC Development
NetSpeed Systems* (Mountain View, California, U.S.) offers a system-on-chip (SoC) design platform and advanced on-chip network solutions that let SoC architects create designs that are significantly smaller and more power-efficient in a fraction of the usual time.
Reno Sub-systems* (Canada) designs, develops and delivers subsystems used to control process systems made by OEMs, including vacuum-based chambers to deposit and etch specialty materials needed in advanced integrated circuit fabrication.
Big Data and Cloud Infrastructure
Gigya* (San Francisco, U.S.) makes a cloud-based customer identity management platform that helps customers turn unknown Web or mobile visitors into loyal and engaged customers.
PilotTV* (Taiwan) is a digital signage network operator that designs, deploys and jointly operates digital signage systems for retail venues, operating over 6,000 screens in various channels including convenience stores, fast food chains, drugstores and rapid transit stations.
PrecisionHawk* (Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.) is an information delivery company that uses a small, unmanned aerial vehicle and cloud-based software to collect, process and analyze aerial data. Its solution provides actionable information to clients in civilian industries.
Prelert* (Framingham, Massachusetts, U.S.) packages data science into downloadable applications for everyday users. It uses machine-learning predictive analytics to learn the normal behavior patterns of populations of individual users, devices and resources.
Stratoscale* (Israel) develops new technology to rethink next-generation data centers. It is building the runtime software infrastructure for scalable computing to help customers use all available computing resources and unify computing and storage across the data center.