Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment and M&A organization, kicked off its annual Intel Capital Global Summit by announcing investments in 10 innovative technology companies.
Intended to help these companies grow to the next level, the investments reinforce the Global Summit's 2-day agenda focused on company building.
Totaling approximately $40 million, they cover a range of technologies from collaborating in the cloud and delivering enhanced digital entertainment to simplifying mobile payments and enabling new forms of device interaction.
The investments include secure content sharing platform Box; Bollywood and South-Asian content distributor Hungama.com; integrated circuit design house FocalTech; social radio platform Jelli; social game developer LIFO Interactive; mobile proximity platform NewAer; e-payment platform, PagPop; cloud services provider Tier 3; 3-D game developer Transmension; and mobile advertising provider UUCun.
A bit about some of the investments:
Box is one of the fastest-growing private enterprise software companies in the world, delivering an intuitive, powerful and secure content sharing platform that users and IT department's love.
From India, Hungama.com is a digital entertainment company with the country's first and largest on-demand digital entertainment storefront. The storefront has over 2.5 million pieces of content across genres and languages in the form of music tracks, movies, music videos and mobile content.
Jelli is a social radio platform that combines the reach of radio with the engagement of the Web. Jelli's consumer experience allows listeners to control radio playlists through real-time voting and game elements via free iPhone and Android apps and Web experience. Jelli's advertising platform enables real-time ad serving and listener engagement across social, mobile and broadcast platforms, creating unique insights for advertisers.
Korea-based LIFO Interactive is a social game developer. Its best-known game on Facebook, Train City*, attracted more than 8 million users worldwide last year. The company is currently developing a mobile version of the hit game, scheduled for release later this year, and has several mobile games in development for iOS, Android, and Windows 8 app stores.
NewAer has created a proximity platform enabling any phone, tablet or computer to automate actions based on who or what is detected nearby. Developers add NewAer's mobile scanning engine software development kit to their apps and then tie into NewAer's back-end interface to enable service "triggers." For example, ToothTag*, NewAer's showcase app for Android devices, allows users to "tag" people, places or things based on their wireless presence and set rules like automating call forwarding when leaving the home or office. NewAer's platform breaks the limitations of GPS point references, making possible the next generation of smart location-based services based on elastic geofence events.
Brazil-based PagPop operates a mobile payment online platform that allows professionals and small business owners to accept credit cards for payment. PagPop's technology transforms any feature phone, computer, landline or smartphone with a swipe device, into a credit card payment machine. As a result, payments can be made anytime, everywhere in an easy, affordable and secure manner.
Tier 3 is a leading provider of enterprise-class cloud services, combining both infrastructure (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) in a comprehensive cloud management platform. The Tier 3 Cloud increases IT operational efficiency and flexibility through advanced cloud orchestration and management capabilities that support the entire business application portfolio, from development to production environments and business-critical applications.
China-based Transmension is a television-focused gaming service provider, which specializes in providing and enabling the delivery of high-quality games to TV screens via IPTV, smart TVs and cable TV carriers. Transmension has collaborated with leading game studios to distribute their games to millions of families.
Also from China, UUCun, is a mobile Internet ad platform connecting phone makers, app developers and advertisers. The company's solution has been deployed in approximately 20 million newly shipped smartphones this year. The company is expanding its platform and technology to enable not only mobile advertisements but also more value-added services.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
