{"id":27177,"date":"2015-06-10T17:12:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T21:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=27177"},"modified":"2016-06-11T12:30:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T16:30:52","slug":"intel-begins-125m-diversity-investment-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=27177","title":{"rendered":"Intel Begins $125M Diversity Investment Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mark<\/a>
Mark One team (MyVessyl.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

10 June 2015. The venture capital division of semiconductor manufacturer Intel unveiled a fund to invest in technology start-ups founded by women and under-represented minorities. Intel Capital announced as well the first four investments from its Capital Diversity Fund<\/a>, which expects to distribute some $125 million over the next 5 years.<\/p>\n

Intel cited data showing the need for this kind of fund. A study by Babson College<\/a> published last year shows as of 2011 to 2013, about 15 percent of businesses receiving venture capital investments had a woman executive. While that number represents an improvement over the 5 percent found in a similar survey in 1999, it is still far less than the 36 percent of American businesses with women as majority owners.<\/p>\n

The CB Insights data<\/a>, from 2010, show only 1 percent of start-up founders are African-American, with 87 percent white and 12 percent of Asian-Pacific heritage. Also in 2010, start-up companies founded by people of Asian-Pacific heritage attracted an average of $4 million in seed and first-round venture funding, compared to $2.3 or $2.2 million for businesses founded by white entrepreneurs or those of different ethnic backgrounds, and $1.3 million for enterprises started by African-Americans.<\/p>\n

“Our goal with this new fund,” says Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in a company statement<\/a>, “is to meaningfully support a technology start-up workforce more reflective of society, and ultimately to benefit Intel and the broader economy through its success.” The fund is an add-on to a $300 million initiative<\/a> announced in January to increase Intel’s hiring of women and under-represented minorities, and support educational and employment opportunities for women and minorities across the IT industry.<\/p>\n

The Capital Diversity Fund plans to support new companies where either the founder or at least 3 members of their executive teams are women or under-represented minorities: African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. While the first recipients are high-growth start-ups in the U.S., the fund expects to finance companies worldwide. The project is headed by Lisa Lambert<\/a>, who directs Intel Capital’s investments in software and services, and is considered an expert on diversity in technology industries.<\/p>\n

The first four investments from the fund are:<\/p>\n

– CareCloud<\/a>, in Miami, a cloud-based open platform that links health care providers with patients, incorporating electronic health records, analytics, and medical billing software and services for medical groups.<\/p>\n

– Venafi<\/a>, in Salt Lake City, offering a service that protects IT security keys and certificates, by assessing keys and certificates to be trusted, protecting those that should be trusted, and fixing or blocking those that are not.<\/p>\n

– Mark One<\/a>, in San Francisco, a developer of the Vessyl, a beverage cup with built-in sensors and electronics (including those made by Intel) that recognizes and analyzes its contents and reports the results on the user’s smartphone.<\/p>\n

– Brit + Co<\/a>, also in San Francisco, \u00a0<\/span>an online media and e-commerce platform offering tools to teach, inspire, and enable creativity among women and girls.<\/p>\n

While individual investments in these companies were not disclosed, Intel says the fund expects to disperse about 1\/5th of the total $125 million each of the 5 years.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n