Intel Capital Investments to Help Expand the Mobile Ecosystem

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February 14, 2011 08:00 AM Eastern Time 

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

• Intel Capital to invest $26 million in six mobility companies around the globe.
• New investments will help drive continued innovation in mobile hardware, software and applications ecosystems.
• Technologies bring new user experiences across a continuum of devices.

Mobile World Congress 2011

BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS--Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment organization, today announced six new investments to drive continued innovation across the mobile hardware, software and applications ecosystems. The new deals total approximately $26 million and include open source mobile software solutions company Borqs; location-based mapping platform and tools provider CloudMade; QuantumFilm™-based image sensor vendor InVisage; open source online video platform Kaltura; online authentication provider SecureKey Technologies; and unified communications and collaboration service software provider VisionOSS Solutions.

“As more devices compute and connect to the Internet, it creates an opportunity to deliver new end-user capabilities by supporting the development of mobile infrastructure, applications, services and components for Intel® architecture-based platforms”

The six companies each have developed innovative technologies to enhance the user experience across a continuum of devices, including handhelds, tablets and laptops, that run a variety of operating systems including MeeGo and Android*.

“As more devices compute and connect to the Internet, it creates an opportunity to deliver new end-user capabilities by supporting the development of mobile infrastructure, applications, services and components for Intel® architecture-based platforms,” said Arvind Sodhani, president, Intel Capital and executive vice president, Intel. “These six investments represent key growth areas of the mobile ecosystem and will contribute to bringing important features to the next generation of mobile devices.”

“These Intel Capital investments represent innovative companies that Intel is working with to help advance our mobile platform initiatives across smart device segments including handheld, tablet and notebook businesses,” said Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Ultra Mobile Group. “The investments, coupled with Intel’s expanding set of capabilities in silicon, software and communications, will help the company accelerate plans across a variety of smart devices and market segments.”

Details on the new investments follow:

Borqs Ltd. (Borqs) (Beijing) is an Android software integrator for mobile devices. The company works with name-brand smart phone OEMs, semi-conductor companies, and mobile operators to enhance the Android system to meet their requirements. With expertise ranging from kernel, device-level drivers to top-level user interfaces, Borqs Android solution has been deployed in more than 30 Android mobile devices for W-CDMA networks and TD-SCDMA networks. Borqs Android solution is Google CTS compliant. The investment from Intel Capital, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions, aligns with Intel’s port of choice strategy to support multiple operating systems across a variety of devices and will be used by the company for business development.

CloudMade (Menlo Park, Calif.) was founded in 2007 to enable developers to build location-enabled applications and services. The company provides application developers with a range of innovative tools and application programming interfaces to enable the creation of unique location-based applications across all major web and mobile platforms. Today there are more than 16,000 developers using CloudMade's tools to create applications for mobile and Web consumers. The investment from Intel Capital will be used to further strengthen the platform and to work with developers to provide them with an unparalleled suite of tools designed for their specific needs. CloudMade will be certified under the Intel’s AppUp™ application store.

Kaltura (New York) provides a widely adopted open source online video platform. More than 100,000 media and entertainment companies, enterprises, small- and medium-size businesses, educational institutions, service providers, platform vendors and system integrators use Kaltura’s flexible platform to enhance their websites, Web services and Web platforms with advanced customized rich-media functionalities that are delivered through any connected device. Kaltura’s features and products enable the easy deployment of custom workflows involving video, photo and audio creation, ingestion, publishing, management, distribution, engagement, monetization and analysis. The investment will be used to enhance rich-media functionalities on tablets, mobile phones and other connected devices, with a special emphasis on supporting the MeeGo™ mobile operating system and Intel’s AppUp application store.

InVisage Technologies, Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.) is harnessing the power of custom-designed semiconductor materials to develop QuantumFilm, the world’s first commercial quantum dot-based material for image sensors. QuantumFilm replaces silicon as the light capture material to enable high-fidelity, high-resolution images from such handheld devices as camera phones and digital cameras. Imaging is becoming an increasingly important capability across notebooks, handhelds and tablets. InVisage will use this funding round -- led by Intel Capital -- to bring its products and technology into mass production.

SecureKey Technologies, Inc. (Toronto) designs hardware and software solutions to enable the strong cryptographic capabilities of debit, credit and identity smartcards -- including those within Near Field Communication-based phones -- for online authentication and online purchases. SecureKey's solutions provide a powerful user experience that can be delivered across platforms improving both the security and convenience of online transactions. The company’s focus on secure transactions aligns with Intel’s vision of security as a key pillar of computing across all platforms, as more peoples’ lives are conducted online. The investment will be used to drive growth and expansion.

VisionOSS Solutions (Reading, UK) provides a unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) service delivery and management platform to service providers and large enterprise customers that are planning to, or have already launched, complex, multi-cluster IP-PBX and UC&C architectures. The VOSS technology is a real-time, fully automated, scalable and centralized UC&C service delivery and management platform, which reduces complexity, speeds implementation, and cuts costs for the fulfillment of UC&C services. VOSS will use the new funds to fuel its growth, and to support the evolution of its technology which has already been deployed in a significant number of tier-one service providers.

About Intel Capital

Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing and cleantech. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$9.8 billion in over 1,100 companies in 48 countries. In that timeframe, 189 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 258 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2010, Intel Capital invested US$327 million in 119 investments with approximately 44 percent of funds invested outside the U.S. and Canada. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Contacts

Intel Capital
Amy Kircos, 480-552-8803
Amy.Kircos@intel.com
Maria Cubeta, 415-591-4070
Maria.Cubeta@bm.com

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