Intel Establishes $50 Million Venture Capital Fund For Brazil

Recognizing Brazil’s position as South America’s largest economy and its increasing importance as a technology leader, Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corporation, has created a US$50 million venture capital fund to promote technology growth in Brazil.

The fund will be used to invest in companies that can benefit from the rapid growth of technology in Brazil, and provide local businesses with capital to help nurture important technologies and products developed for local use. Examples include hardware, services (broadband infrastructure and mobile wireless solutions using WiMAX technology, among other services), local content developers/providers, digital health solutions, IT service providers and software solutions.

Intel Capital has been a leading venture capital investor in Brazil since 1999, investing over US$35 million in 13 companies. In 2005, Intel Capital announced four local investments in Digitron, TelecomNet, Certsign and Neovia.

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VC Firm Plans Fund for Russia, Eastern Europe

Finnish venture capital company Amanda Capital plc is planning to establish a limited partnership fund to invest in unquoted companies in Russia and Eastern Europe through private equity funds.

Amanda ( Helsinki, Finland) said it would make a 10 million euro (US$12 million) commitment from its own balance sheet to help establish the fund, but did not offer any indication of the what size it expected to close the fund.

The private equity market in Russia and Eastern Europe has reached an “interesting phase” according to Amanda representatives and that a positive climate for private equity investment has been created but with only moderate competition for access to good target companies compared to Western Europe.

Amanda representatives said it would use the same process to choose managers for fund that helped it achieve an average 30 per cent return on its other private equity fund investments.

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U.S. Venture Funds Take Direct Route to Israeli Startups

U.S. venture capital funds are increasingly bypassing Israeli funds to invest directly in local startups, a survey of recent investments shows.

Sequoia Capital has invested US$3 million in an initial financing round for Jajah, which is seeking to compete with Skype to deliver phone calls over the Internet. Unlike Skype, Jajah's claims its technology requires no downloads and uses a simpler interface.

Sequoia, along with U.S. fund Accel Partners, were lead investors in Upsteed in its $5 million series A funding round. Upsteed has developed a cellular advertising system designed to reduce the cost of delivering ads to cell network devices.

Meanwhile, Novak Biddle Venture Partners led an $8 million financing round for Israeli startup FiberZone Networks. The company develops technology to manage fiber optic networks.

Another Israeli startup, Mobilitec, which supplies cellular services, raised $12.1 million from the U.S. funds Canaan Partners and Duchossois Technology Ventures. Since its founding in 2000, Mobilitec has separately raised $22 million from Israeli funds and the corporate investment arms of Lucent Ventures and Singapore Telecom.

For the first time, a U.S. buyout firm has taken a stake in an Israeli electronics company. Boston-based TA Associates has purchased 5 percent of Alma Lasers for $90 million. Based on the deal, Alma Lasers is valued at $140 million.