Intel Invests $67M Into 8 Chinese Companies, Including Segway Owner Ninebot

Fresh off a $60 million deal with Shanghai-based drone maker Yuneec, Intel is continuing to ramp up its investment in Chinese tech startups after the U.S. firm revealed it has pumped $67 million into eight companies in the country.
Each deal isn’t broken out into specific investment size, but Intel said the companies it has backed span a range of verticals, including internet-of-things, smart devices, transportation and big data. There are very obvious synergies with the Intel mothership with each one, as you’d expect.
The full list includes:

• 99cloud — an OpenStack-based solutions and operations company
• Bluebank — a hardware firm that creates smartphones, tablets and software for brands and other third parties
• Hampoo — a Shenzhen-headquartered company that provides a range of components and operations required to create smart devices and other kinds of hardware
• Ninebot — the company that acquired Segway earlier this year and raised $80 million in funding from Xiaomi and Sequoia. (Ninebot claims customer in over 100 countries and a 60 percent share of the global “personal transporters” market.)
• Nuovo Film — the company’s “transparent conductive silver nanowire film” technology enables touch screen technology, like Apple’s Force Touch and 3D Touch features, across a range of verticals that include mobile devices, PCs, whiteboards and even coffee machines.
• PraFly — produces robotics and control systems that are used across manufacturing, smart devices, in-vehicle systems and more
• AWcloud — a provider of OpenStack Cloud solutions for enterprise customers
• Telink — which develops low power radio-frequency and mixed signal system chips which power Internet of Things devices like smart bulbs

Intel, which has now reached 30 years of business in China, revealed that it has put nearly $2 billion in over 140 China-based companies to date. That figure is distorted by its $1 billion investment in chip maker Beijing UniSpreadtrum last year, but the U.S. firm said that an impressive 35 of its China portfolio have exited via a public offering or acquisition.

The deal for Yuneec, which was just days after rival EHANG landed a $42 million Series B and months after DJI raised at a reported $8 billion valuation, showed that Intel is upping the ante with its China-based funds, but today’s news shows it is still going after its bread and butter areas and not just sexy stuff like drones.
“The investments demonstrate Intel’s commitment to fostering Chinese technology innovation and accelerating China’s technology ecosystem development,” Intel said in a statement.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/16/intel-invests-67m-into-8-chinese-companies-including-segway-owner-ninebot/