Venture Capital News
Intel Establishes $250 Million India Venture Fund
Representatives of Intel Corporation announced the establishment of a US$250 million venture capital fund to help stimulate technological innovation in India and drive continued growth of the country’s Information Technology (IT) industry.
The fund will be used to invest in companies that can benefit from the rapid growth in the domestic IT market segment in India, and provide local businesses with capital to help nurture important technologies and products developed for local use. Intel Capital will also use the fund to selectively invest in technology-oriented service companies that target overseas market segments using India’s highly talented resource base. Examples of initial focus areas include cellular communications, broadband applications and wireless technologies.
Intel Capital made its first strategic investment India in 1998 and since then has invested in more than 40 Indian companies across seven cities. Several of these companies have since gone public or have been acquired. These include two that were acquired by other firms last year: Deccanet Designs, a communications design and software services company, and FutureSoft, a telecommunications product and services company. India Infoline.com Ltd., an online portal, and Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd., a telecommunications product and services company, went public on the Indian stock market this year.
Other notable examples of current Intel Capital investments in India include NIIT, a global IT learning solutions company; Nipuna Services Ltd., a business process outsourcing provider; and Tejas Networks, a telecom products company for the Indian market segment.
Intel Capital focuses on making equity investments and acquisitions to grow the Internet economy in support of Intel’s strategic interests. Intel Capital invests in hardware, software and services companies in several market segments, including computing, networking and wireless communications. For more information, visit www.intel.com/capital.
Since it started investing, Intel Capital has invested more than US$4 billion in more than 1,000 companies headquartered in more than 30 countries. In addition, Intel Capital has provided Intel Corporation with a net financial return, enough to build a manufacturing fab. In 2004, Intel Capital invested more than US$130 million, and about 40 percent of its investments were in companies based outside the United States. Last year, 21 portfolio companies were acquired and 11 portfolio companies went public on stock exchanges around the world.
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Cornice Secures $97 Million in Venture Funding
Representatives of Cornice Inc., announced the company has secured US$97 million in venture debt and equity financing. The equity round includes the Company’s major previous investors – VantagePoint Venture Partners, BlueRun Ventures and BA Venture Partners – and brings on a new lead investor, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (the “Caisse”). Simultaneously with the close of the equity financing, the Company entered into a new lending relationship with Hercules Technology Growth Capital; the firm supplemented Cornice with structured mezzanine debt capital.
The new financing will be used to support the development and manufacturing initiatives related to the Company’s micro hard drive technology, as well as expand the marketing and corporate sales groups. Cornice offers embedded one-inch storage devices for pocket-able consumer electronic products such as mobile phones, digital music players, and personal storage devices. Cornice’s storage products have been enabling small, ultra-thin, highcapacity, rugged consumer electronics products for more than two years for the world’s leading consumer electronics manufacturers.
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Needle-free Injection System Secures £2.1 Million from Oxford Angels
Caretek Medical Ltd, an Oxford-based company developing an innovative needle-free drug delivery device, has completed an oversubscribed £2.1 (US$3.7) million funding round in just four weeks. The round was led by Oxford Technology 4 VCT plc and supported by Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network (OION), Europe’s leading technology business angel network, and business angel investors.
Caretek’s patented ImplaJect® device, which is the size of a fountain pen and uses a spring mechanism to deliver drugs through the skin in a solid dosage form, is already being investigated by pharmaceutical partners looking to combine the novel delivery system with their own proprietary drugs. Caretek will use the new capital to fund development of the ImplaJect® technology through clinical trials of its first “own brand” product that will combine the device with well-established generic drugs.
The ImplaJect system was invented by Dr Charles Potter, Caretek’s founder and Chief Executive Officer.
The needle-free ImplaJect device accurately delivers drugs through the skin into the underlying tissue where the drugs dissolve and are released into the patient’s bloodstream. Dr Potter believes that for many drug applications the ImplaJect® technology could replace needle and syringe injections, which cannot deliver solid form drugs, cause discomfort and carry an infection risk.
This is the second time that Caretek has completed an oversubscribed equity funding round within a matter of weeks. The company previously secured £550,000 in February 2005 – also with the help of Oxford Technology VCT and OION.
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IBM Announces New Licensing Program to Prompt Collaborative Innovation With VCs & Startups
Representatives IBM announced Tuesday that it is launching a new licensing program with the venture capital community to help startup companies accelerate the development of innovative solutions in the marketplace.
The new IBM Ventures in Collaboration program will give venture capital firms in IBM's partner network and their portfolio companies the opportunity to access the broadest range of intellectual property in the industry -- more than 40,000 patents -- to help ignite innovation. The program also provides startups with the opportunity to partner with IBM's inventor community to access the technology behind the patents, thereby stimulating new thinking around IBM's existing intellectual property.
The IBM Ventures in Collaboration program was developed after extensive consultation with the venture capital community, including members of IBM's own Venture Capital Advisory Council. The end result is a program that offers a simple, affordable licensing agreement; without the high costs and complexities found in most licensing contracts.
The program consists of two types of cross licensing agreements; one specifically designed for early-staged startups generating less than US$10 million in revenue, the other designed for later-stage, venture-backed companies with greater revenues. Both agreements minimize the need for extended negotiations and accommodate the accelerated growth cycles of the startup. An added feature is that the program is administered through the companies' investing VCs, who have the legal and capital resources to implement it.
One example of how a startup might use IBM's patents can be found in IBM's patent portfolio covering wireless technology. Wireless technology gives consumers the freedom to access information anywhere, anytime and at a moment's notice. Imagine the value of IBM's wireless Braille device patents to a young start up developing a new handheld device that enables the sight-impaired to access the Internet and to receive important information at their fingertips. In this example, IBM's intellectual property can be used to help the start up company advance their innovative wireless ideas while encouraging new creative uses for IBM's patents.
IBM's venture capital efforts are a unique differentiator in the marketplace. IBM's VC efforts are focused on building win-win business partnerships with VC backed start-ups, which have led to rapid growth of these innovative companies in IBM's ecosystem. IBM partnerships with VC backed startups through its formal PartnerWorld partnership programs have jumped from 20 to more than 950 in the past eighteen months.
The IBM Ventures in Collaboration Program reflects IBM's partner-focused business model and is the latest in a series of innovation-related announcements that IBM has made over the past 16 months including: pledging 500 software patents to the open source community, granting open IP access to specific standards bodies and formalizing a non-assertion pledge for the Linux kernel. Further information about this program can be found at the IBM Venture Capital Group website, www.ibm.com/venturecapitalgroup.
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Event: “The Boardroom” (Jan. 24)
VC TaskForce is launching “The Boardroom,” an innovative program on Boards of Directors, with its debut at 6:30pm on the evening of January 24, 2006 at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman located at 2475 Hanover Street in Palo Alto, California. “The Boardroom” uses a case-study approach to simulate real life boardroom scenarios. Through well-crafted cases, we can re-live actual boardroom situations in private and public, high-tech companies and learn from others’ mistakes. It’s a “Flight Simulator” for boardroom training – no seatbelts required.
Anyone who’s learned the hard lessons of business on-the-job knows that experience is actually the second-best teacher. The case method is the best. A well crafted case can pack more experience into every hour of learning than any other instructional approach – and there’s always a soft landing. Judgment and the wisdom developed from experience lie at the very core of business success. There’s no more effective way to develop these skills than through cases, such as those presented in “The Boardroom” program.
“The Boardroom” program has been developed by two high tech corporate governance advisors: Deborah Ludewig, Partner, Emerging Growth and Technology, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Ann Peckenpaugh, President, Board Search Partners LLC.
There is a $79 fee for VC TaskForce Members, a $99 charge for affiliate members and a general charge of $129. For more information, see http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=100258 .
