Perhaps the greatest sign of a corporate venturing unit’s success is when it can gain the backing of its next chief executive. Arvind Sodhani, president of US-listed semiconductor company Intel’s corporate venturing unit, Intel Capital, secured this feat when Brian Krzanich, the chipmaker’s incoming chief executive declared himself “a big fan” of Intel Capital’s Global Summit, which hosted more than 1,100 delegates last year.
The news indicates how Sodhani has helped cement the organisation as part of Intel having been at the head of the group since 2005. He became an executive vice president of Intel Corporation in 2007.
He has served as director for several other companies, including Nasdaq, Clearwire, Smart Technologies, among others. Sodhani received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan in 1978.
With a portfolio of more than $11bn invested in the past 20 years, Intel Capital is perhaps the largest technology venture investor globally and one of the most successful.
Sodhani said: “Our focus on adding value to portfolio companies will not change. We will continue to focus on helping entrepreneurs scale from start-up to global corporation with tools and knowledge they need to succeed, whether it is providing access to our business development programs such as Intel Technology Days, global network, worldwide customer access, brand capital or tech expertise. This collection of unusual factors is what sets Intel Capital apart and strengthens our relationship with entrepreneurs. We will continue to be stage agnostic and will invest and support our portfolio companies in any stage of their development, from seed all the way to initial public offering (IPO) as well as post-IPO companies. We will continue to lead rounds and invest in follow-on rounds.”
He added: “What will evolve are our focus areas. With offices in 26 countries and 200 employees, our size and global reach means Intel Capital is everywhere innovation is happening.
Intel’s industry position lets us see the future of technology and how to get there, giving Intel Capital the unique ability to build technology ecosystems. We are always evolving and shifting our technology horizon to what’s next. Today this includes wearables and other ultra-mobile devices, experiences and perceptual computing, connected automobiles, big data and cloud technologies, and many more. Tomorrow, it will be something different, but we will assuredly be at the front edge of innovation. It is everyone’s job at Intel Capital to maintain our leadership and resulting commitment to entrepreneurs. This focus on investing in emerging technologies and ecosystem enabling creates value for entrepreneurs, consumers, and Intel Corporation benefits when new services and products expand computing technology worldwide.
This year Intel Capital created four additional investment sectors: Datacenter Software Sector, New Devices and Wearables Sector, Security Sector, and Ultrabook and Perceptual Computing Sector, taking it to nine investment sectors. Intel Capital had 28 exits worldwide year to date in 2013.
