Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Intel Capital http://pulse2.com Sun, 27 May 2012 16:32:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 People Search Engine Ark Raises $4.2 Million In Seed Round http://pulse2.com/2012/04/25/people-search-engine-ark-raises-4-2-million-in-seed-round/ http://pulse2.com/2012/04/25/people-search-engine-ark-raises-4-2-million-in-seed-round/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:55:34 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=60331 Continue reading →]]>
Ark is a people search engine launched at Y Combinator Demo Day that has raised $4.2 million in a seed round of funding. Ark crawls Facebook, RenRen, LinkedIn, and Twitter to find out as much data as possible. The founders at Ark got the idea for the startup when they found out that 30% of searches are for people.

In March 2012, Ark indexed over 1 billion people from their social networking data. About 250,000 people have signed up for beta invites.

The $4.2 million seed round is the largest that any Y Combinator has received. Investors in this round include Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures, Greylock Partners, Intel Capital, SV Angel, Atlas Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Expansion Venture Capital, and Felicis Ventures. Angel investors from Facebook, Salesforce.com, Qualcomm, and Microsoft also participated in this round.

Ark currently has 20 people on staff and they plan to hire more for their mobile and search engineering teams. Ark started in summer 2011 and their search engine was developed during the Y Combinator Winter Program.

]]> http://pulse2.com/2012/04/25/people-search-engine-ark-raises-4-2-million-in-seed-round/feed/ 0 Apple Acquiring Anobit For $400-$500 Million [RUMOR] http://pulse2.com/2011/12/13/apple-acquiring-anobit-for-400-500-million-rumor/ http://pulse2.com/2011/12/13/apple-acquiring-anobit-for-400-500-million-rumor/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:46:19 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=54531 Continue reading →]]>
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is rumored to be acquiring Anobit, an Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage for between $400 and $500 million. This would be Tim Cook’s first big acquisition since taking over as CEO. Apple also rarely buys hardware companies as they tend to focus more on software acquisitions.

Anobit provides flash storage solutions for enterprise and mobile companies based on their proprietary Memory Signal Processing technology. Their technology is used for improving speed, endurance, and performance of flash storage systems. Apple currently relies on Anobit’s solutions for the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air. South Korean company Hynix uses Anobit’s solutions for a flash memory chip that you can find inside of the iPhone 4S.

Anobit has 21 granted patents and 95 in total. Anobit has raised a total of $76 million from Battery Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, and Intel Capital. Anobit started in 2006 and is led by co-founder, chairman, and CEO Professor Ehud Weinstein. Before starting Anobit, Weinstein was co-founder and CEO of Libit Signal Processing. Texas Instruments acquired Libit in 1999.

Anobit co-founder and president Ariel Maislos previously co-founded Passave, which was acquired by PMC Sierra in 2006. Anobit currently has about 200 employees.

[TechCrunch]

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/12/13/apple-acquiring-anobit-for-400-500-million-rumor/feed/ 1 Intel, MasterCard, and Motorola Mobility Invests $18 Million Into mFoundry http://pulse2.com/2011/12/05/intel-mastercard-and-motorola-mobility-invests-18-million-into-mfoundry/ http://pulse2.com/2011/12/05/intel-mastercard-and-motorola-mobility-invests-18-million-into-mfoundry/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:32:32 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=54082 Continue reading →]]>
mFoundry is a company that powers the mobile banking solutions for over 500 banks and credit unions across the nation. The company has raised an $18 million round of funding from MasterCard, Intel Capital, Fidelity, and Motorola Mobility. mFoundry has raised a total of $40 million in funding.

mFoundry’s software-as-a-service allows banks and other providers to give customers mobile banking options including payments. One of mFoundry’s biggest clients is the Starbucks Card Mobile app. The investors in this round of funding will be working with mFoundry to develop tailored products.

This new round of funding will be used to fund the development of new payment services and mobile products targeted at financial organizations. mFoundry was co-founded by Drew Sievers and Rodney Aiglstorfer.

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/12/05/intel-mastercard-and-motorola-mobility-invests-18-million-into-mfoundry/feed/ 1 Game Streaming Company Gaikai Raises $30 Million In Third Round http://pulse2.com/2011/07/24/game-streaming-company-gaikai-raises-30-million-in-third-round/ http://pulse2.com/2011/07/24/game-streaming-company-gaikai-raises-30-million-in-third-round/#comments Sun, 24 Jul 2011 17:31:04 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=48865 Continue reading →]]>
Game streaming startup company Gaikai has raised $30 million in a third round of funding. Games are stored in the cloud and is delivered through high-speed Internet connections when on demand.

This round of funding was led by New Enterprise Associates. Qualcomm, Benchmark Capital, Rustic Canyon, and Intel Capital participated on this round. Gaikai CEO David Perry will be using this round of funding to accelerate the Interactive Cloud Network rollout.

“We have all become used to accessing every song ever made, every book ever written, every movie in every genre through cloud-based services. Gaikai is bringing this same functionality to video games and other interactive software,” stated Perry. Gaikai started in 2009 and has 65 employees.

[VentureBeat]

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/07/24/game-streaming-company-gaikai-raises-30-million-in-third-round/feed/ 0 Skyrockit Raises $2.6 Million From Intel and Others http://pulse2.com/2011/07/12/skyrockit-raises-2-6-million-from-intel-and-others/ http://pulse2.com/2011/07/12/skyrockit-raises-2-6-million-from-intel-and-others/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:50:17 +0000 Riley Kennysmith http://pulse2.com/?p=48405 Continue reading →]]>

Skyrockit, a mobile app developer, has raised $2.6 million in new funding. The investments come from Intel Capital, Asuka DBJ Partners and Mark Kingdon. The funds will help the company build new apps and advertise their existing ones, such as the Zippo Lighter for iPhones. TechCrunch reports that Skyrockit has generated more than $300 million in revenue.

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/07/12/skyrockit-raises-2-6-million-from-intel-and-others/feed/ 0 CrowdStar Raises $23 Million In First Round Of Funding Led By Intel Capital and Time Warner http://pulse2.com/2011/05/23/crowdstar-raises-23-million-in-first-round-of-funding-led-by-intel-capital-and-time-warner/ http://pulse2.com/2011/05/23/crowdstar-raises-23-million-in-first-round-of-funding-led-by-intel-capital-and-time-warner/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 21:11:19 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=47538 Continue reading →]]>
CrowdStar is a social gaming company that has just raised $23 million in a first round of funding led by Intel Capital and Time Warner Investments. CrowdStar will be using the funding to hire additional talent and globally expand.

“We want to be a global social and mobile gaming company, not just a Facebook game company,” stated CrowdStar CEO Peter Relan. “As we do so, it becomes difficult to fund all of that investment through our Facebook growth alone.” Relan is also the chairman of the YouWeb incubator.

The9 and NVInvestments participated in this round of funding. CrowdStar had about 20 people on their team as of early 2010. Currently CrowdStar has over 100 employees. CrowdStar was founded by Suren Markosian in summer 2008 with incubation from YouWeb.

[VentureBeat]

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/05/23/crowdstar-raises-23-million-in-first-round-of-funding-led-by-intel-capital-and-time-warner/feed/ 0 Digital Textbook and Tablet Company Kno Inc. Raises $30 Million In Funding http://pulse2.com/2011/04/11/digital-textbook-and-tablet-company-kno-inc-raises-30-million-in-funding/ http://pulse2.com/2011/04/11/digital-textbook-and-tablet-company-kno-inc-raises-30-million-in-funding/#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:47:11 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=45755 Continue reading →]]>
Kno Inc. has raised $30 million in funding. The venture capital subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) led the round by investing $20 million. Other investors in this round include Andreessen Horowitz, Advance Publications Inc., First Round Capital, Floodgate Fund LP, and SV Angels. Kno was founded in 2009 and had raised $46 million in equity and debt financing this past September. Before this round, Kno raised a total of $65 million. Kno said that they will be charging $599 for single-screen tablets and $899 for a dual-screen version. [BusinessWeek]

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/04/11/digital-textbook-and-tablet-company-kno-inc-raises-30-million-in-funding/feed/ 0 Digital Chocolate Raises $12 Million In Series D http://pulse2.com/2011/03/06/digital-chocolate-raises-12-million-in-series-d/ http://pulse2.com/2011/03/06/digital-chocolate-raises-12-million-in-series-d/#comments Mon, 07 Mar 2011 02:24:20 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=44388 Continue reading →]]>
Digital Chocolate is a mobile and social gaming development company that has raised $12 million in Series D in a round led by Intel Capital. Sutter Hill Ventures and Bridgescale Partners also participated in this round. Digital Chocolate is one of the top 5 global game publishing companies on Facebook and they even hit over 100 million mobile downloads. They plan on using the funding to scale their platform.

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/03/06/digital-chocolate-raises-12-million-in-series-d/feed/ 0 Intel Acquires Silicon Hive http://pulse2.com/2011/02/15/intel-acquires-silicon-hive/ http://pulse2.com/2011/02/15/intel-acquires-silicon-hive/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:44:39 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=43860 Continue reading →]]>
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has acquired Silicon Hive. Silicon Hive is an Intel Capital portfolio company that works on enhancing still imaging and multimedia video processing technology. Silicon Hive has about 65 people on staff across the world and is based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The company was co-founded by Atul Sinha and Jeroen Leijten.

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/02/15/intel-acquires-silicon-hive/feed/ 1 Intel Capital Invests $26 Million In Borqs, Cloudmade, InVisage, Kaltura, SecureKey, and VisionOSS http://pulse2.com/2011/02/14/intel-capital-invests-26-million-in-borqs-cloudmade-invisage-kaltura-securekey-and-visionoss/ http://pulse2.com/2011/02/14/intel-capital-invests-26-million-in-borqs-cloudmade-invisage-kaltura-securekey-and-visionoss/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:03:01 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=43725 Continue reading →]]>
Intel Capital has invested $26 million into six companies. The companies include:
1. Borqs: A location based mapping platform company that develops and promotes mobile operating systems. They are also active members in the Google/Open Handset Alliance as well as the Symbian Foundation.
2. Cloudmade: Cloudmade allows people to create applications with map tiles, turn-by-turn navigation, and in-app advertising. About 16,000 developers use CloudMade to create applications.
3. Kaltura: Kaltura is an open source online video platform that is used by about 100,000 people and businesses. Intel is investing with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, .406 Ventures, Avalon Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank.
4. InVisage Technologies: InVisage is a company that develops commercial mobile technology materials for image sensors. The material captures light which allows handheld devices to take high-resolution images.
5. SecureKey Technologies: SecureKey is a company designs hardware and software encrypting debit, credit, and identity card data specifically for Near Field Communication phones.
6. VisionOSS Solutions: VisionOSS makes communications and collaboration software IP-PBX and UC&C architectures.

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