Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s Intel Capital on a Funding Spree

Intel Capital is a division of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC). Its objective is to manage investments worldwide as well as mergers and acquisition. It makes equity investments in various IT companies offering them support with hardware, software, mobility, digital media, consumer internet and semiconductor manufacturing. The company was founded back in 1991. It mainly focused on the American market, but since then it has come a long way. Now in 2014, Intel Capital has over 26 offices worldwide. It is present in Belgium, Brazil, USA, UK, China, India, Turkey, Taiwan, Germany, Ireland, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Russia, Israel, Poland and Nigeria. Intel Capital has made some very worthy investments globally. Quite recently, it has made some impressive capital investments in the Chinese market.

Intel Capital has invested a hefty sum of $28 million of its $100 million China Smart Device Innovation fund, for investment into 5 Chinese startups. As the name implies, these are all gadgets or services connected to the IT world. The list includes wearable, mobiles or IT related services. These five ventures aren’t being seen as smart setups. This is Intel Capital’s third investment in 16 years, with over $700 million already spent.

These latest investments are as follows:

- LeWa : LeWa is considered number 1 mobile internet company. It’s aimed at manufacturers of low cost smartphones. Recently the company provided custom ROM for the Nokia X handsets. Even though it is the largest third party of its kind in China, it still strives on investments taken from Tencent. These investments are for LeWa OS, a product designed for users at low cost with smart mobile features.

- Appscomm : It’s the first of its kind, introducing smartwatch with Qualcomm Mirasol display and cloud based applications. It claims it targets the elderly and focuses on health management primarily, but many of its devices are aimed at sportsmen and fashion conscious people. These watches aren’t really a feast to the eye and are considered unattractive.

- Eye Smart: is a venture that creates iris recognition technology, which can become part of the users’ wearable, smart cars, mobile devices and many other applications. Intel Capital made a similar investment into Delta ID in California back in September. Such investments fall in line with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)’s vision of perceptual computing. They provide fast and reliable as well as convenient iris recognition in situations where users become a password for their own device.

- Gotye: This investment aims at creating technologies that can be injected into games, tablets and smartphones. These are all cloud based functionality, all mobile communication solutions.

- Fibocom: This firm produces geolocation modules in different market segments. The company designs and develops FIBOCOM GSM/ GPRS, LTE wireless communication modules as well as GPS modules for vehicles.

According to Arvind Sodhani, the excutive vice president of Intel Corporations (NASDAQ:INTC), these investments are to bring about smart innovations into China and eventually beyond. These companies have innovative ideas that can launch a series of new wave for product development.