Intel Capital announces Indian tech innovation investments

Sufia Tippu
Thursday, 25 May 2006 04:34

IT Industry - Market

Intel Capital, the venture capital investment arm of Intel Corp, has invested a part of its $250 million India Technology Fund in Real Image Technologies, an IT firm based in the south Indian city of Chennai.

Real image specializes in digital media technologies for film, video, audio animation industry.

"We will continue to invest in Indian IT fims, as we are getting huge returns from India and the IT market here is really booming. We are looking for investments in the area of chip design, Wi-Max and services space," Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital, said.

Sodhani, however, did not disclose the amount invested by the fund in Real Image Technologies.

This latest deal was announced at the Seventh Intel Capital CEO Summit currently underway in Mumbai, which brings together chief executives from Intel Capital's portfolio companies worldwide with senior executives from Global 2000 corporations, government representatives, and education leaders for three days of learning and deal-making focused on identifying and capitalizing on opportunities offered today in India.

In December last year, Intel had announced its India Technology Fund, aimed at investing in IT and software firms in the country. Intel has so far made five investments under this fund – the earlier ones being Maya Entertainment, Mauj, MobiApps Holdings and Persistent Systems, all aimed at driving Indian innovation in wireless connectivity, digital media content and consumer Internet.

Intel Capital made its first strategic investment in India in 1998 and since then has invested in more than 40 companies across seven cities in India. Several of these companies have since gone public or have been acquired. Successful Indian portfolio companies include R Systems International Ltd, which went public on April 26, 2006 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India, Sasken Communications, India Infoline and Rediff.