Intel Capital, the global venture investment division of Intel Corporation, announced Thursday its plan to invest $67 million into eight Chinese technology startups across various industries. Those industries include: robotics, smart devices, Internet of Things (IoT), big data, cloud services, and data analytics, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ian Yang, Intel China President, called China a global leader in technology innovation.
“Our investments, new products and collaborations in China support the government’s national initiative to uplift its innovation economy and continue Intel’s long-term commitment to accelerating CTE development in China and driving global innovation and entrepreneurship,” Yang said.
The eight companies are:
- Bluebank Communication Technology, a smart device and application developer
- 99cloud, a cloud computing provider
- Shenzhen Hampoo Science and Technology, a smart device solution provider
- Shenzhen PreFly Technology, an intelligent robotic systems developer
- Nuovo Film Inc., which manufacturers transparent conductive silver nanowire film
- AWcloud Technology, which offers openstack cloud solutions
- Telink Semiconductor, a Fabless IC design firm
- Ninebot, which handles research and development, production, sales, and other services for intelligent personal transportation equipment and robotics.
According to the Southeast Asia area news source Dealstreetasia.com, the $67 million will add to Intel Capital’s $465 million investments already made by the company this year in startups around the world.
The company has said they want to invest $600 million total in startups by the end of 2015. Considering the Kauffman Foundation estimated the average initial startup cost was $30,000 back in 2009, Intel is doing their part to stimulate the growth of small businesses wherever they can.
Arvind Sodhani, Intel Capital’s president and executive vice president of Intel Corp, is especially pleased with the current direction of the company. “This is shaping up to be one of our strongest years in recent memory,” Sodhani said.
Overall, Intel Capital has made 94 investments this year in 22 different countries.
