Intel’s venture capital arm getting aggressive
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Intel Capital invested in more U.S. deals last year than several local VC heavyweights, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. Once a back-seat investor that let others “lead,” or structure deals, Intel Capital is displaying a new aggressiveness.
The changing focus is already apparent. In 2006, Sodhani’s first full year as the organization’s president, Intel Capital invested $1.07 billion in start-ups, a leap from the $265 million it spent a year earlier. That represented the largest sum it had doled out since the height of the dot-com bubble in 2000. While the total included an exceptionally large $600 million investment in Clearwire, a wireless service provider, it was still up 77 percent without the deal.
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