Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment and M&A organisation, has unveiled a USD100 million Intel Capital AppUp Fund.
The fund will invest in software tools and services companies developing innovative applications and digital content for the mobile and PC ecosystem available at the Intel AppUp centre, Intel’s convenient, personalised and secure app store for netbooks, consumer laptops and Ultrabooks.
The first two investments include Urban Airship, a mobile platform-as-a-service company and 4tiitoo, a German OSV and tablet device developer. The announcement was made at the 12th annual Intel Capital Global Summit.
“The explosion of connected computing devices has created tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs to create and build businesses to meet the unprecedented demand for new and innovative computing applications and digital content,” says Arvind Sodhani (pictured), president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. “The Intel Capital AppUp Fund will help encourage the creation of companies interested in delivering or enabling applications that enhance and extend the online experience for the 15 billion devices expected to be connected by 2015.”
The Intel Capital AppUp Fund will invest in companies producing infrastructure, middleware, innovative applications and digital content across the continuum of connected devices in application developer-centric equity deals all over the world. The fund is built to advance computing innovations based on Intel® architecture in key areas such as digital media consumption, context-aware computing and infrastructure applications. While the investments will focus across multiple technologies and devices, key areas include cross-platform technologies such as HTML5, as well as experiences designed specifically for Ultrabooks.
“The Intel Capital AppUp Fund further demonstrates Intel’s support of the mobile market segment, and creating exciting apps and digital content for Intel architecture is at the centre of our AppUp efforts,” says Renée James, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Software and Services Group. “The fund provides us with a great opportunity to continue innovating, while also engaging with some of the most promising companies to help drive future software technology.”
