San Francisco, US, October 19 — Wendell Brooks, CEO of Intel Capital, announces investments in a total of 15 startups from the United States, Canada, China, Israel, and Japan, at the Intel Capital CEO Showcase event 2017. One of these startups is the data management company Horizon Robotics, based in Beijing, China, which has been founded in 2015.
Leading a Series A investment
Intel Capital is the lead investor in this Series A funding, and they are partnering up for this with Partners Wu Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, Linear Venture, Hillhouse Capital Group, and Harvest Investments. The total amount of the funding is $100m.
This investment does not necessarily have to lead to an acquisition of any kind. Intel Capital is the VC branch of Intel, and they have more than 330 exits on their record and invested in more than 60 companies throughout 2016.
What does Horizon Robotics do?
The startup Horizon Robotics was founded by Chang Huang, Annie Tao, Fang Yi, Kai Yu, and Ming Yang in 2015. Even though their name might suggest otherwise, they are in the data management industry and not dabbling in actual robotics or physical engineering. They are working on an embedded AI solution and are dedicated to providing high-performance solutions for low-cost. They envision to equip devices, such as autonomous vehicles, with “brains” to become intelligent entities with the ability to perceive their environment and make decisions on their own.
Group photo from all participants at the Intel Capital CEO Showcase event 2017
With a growing potential in the fields of IoT, smart cities, smart home, self-driving cars, manufacturing and enterprise automation, their products are likely to be highly sought after if they deliver the promised quality of service. Horizon Robotics technology partners for their embedded AI solution are ARM, Bosch, Actions, Ecovacs, Midea, Nvidia, Allwinner, Xilinx, and, of course, Intel.
It’s data startup hunting season
All of the 15 startups mentioned at the Intel Capital CEO Showcase event have something to do with data. For more info on what each of them is doing, you should check the video below. Here is a quick overview:
- Analyzing data: Amenity Analytics, Bigstream, LeapMind, Synthego
- Capturing data: AdHawk Microsystems, Trace, Bossa Nova Robotics, EchoPixel
- Managing data: Horizon Robotics, Reniac, TileDB Inc.
- Securing data: Alcide, Eclypsium, Intezer, Synack
Leadership insight
Dr. Kai Yu, Founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics, said, “Intel’s commitment to AI as well as its industry leadership and resources will bring to Horizon Robotics significant strategic support in embedded AI R&D and autonomous driving solution development. With the support of Intel’s capabilities in CPU, FPGA, 5G and beyond, we will optimize Horizon Robotics’ AI algorithms and embedded device computing advantages. We are committed to empowering the industrialization of autonomous driving in collaboration with Intel.”
Daniel McNamara, corporate vice president and general manager of the Programmable Solutions Group at Intel Corporation, said, “Intel is playing an active role in supporting companies that are driving technology innovation in China. Horizon Robotics has attracted a talented and experienced team in Artificial Intelligence (AI) with deep expertise in applications such as autonomous driving and human machine interface (HMI). Intel’s FPGAs pair well with Horizon’s open model for technology integration to provide our customers with a flexible, power-efficient computing platform.” Mr. McNamara will join Horizon Robotics’ board of directors.
YouTube: Intel Capital CEO Showcase Event 2017
Photo credit: Intel Capital
Source: Crunchbase / Intel Capital press release 1, 2
Editorial notice: The quotes have been provided as part of a public press release.
