Chip giant's venture capital arm puts its money behind four diverse companies
Intel Capital yesterday announced four investments from its year-old US$200 million China fund, including a chip designer, a personal computer network management company, an online game developer and a firm that operates an advertising network on mainland university campuses.
The venture capital arm of the United States chip giant did not disclose financial details of the deals but it typically invests US$3 million to US$5 million per round in its mainland portfolio companies for a minority stake of less than 20 per cent.
Intel's investments in Montage Technology, Star Softcomm, Winking Entertainment and Campus Media are consistent with its strategy of investing in mainland firms with solid growth prospects that will also improve market conditions for the parent company's core chip business. The case for investing in fabless chip designer Montage Technology is relatively straightforward. But Intel's interest in online gaming and campus advertising is arguably less so.
'Ever since Intel moved to a platform approach last year, we have been looking for third-party technologies which can contribute to that strategy, hence the investment in Montage and Star,' said Intel Capital Asia managing director Cadol Cheung.
However, he said working with Winking Entertainment would help the online game developer enhance its software when running on the Intel platform, thereby promoting the chip company's products in a hot sector.
