US chip giant Qualcomm has announced that its local investment arm, Qualcomm Ventures Israel, will also manage all of the company's investments in Europe. The two Israeli partners, managing director Merav Weinryb and Boaz Peer, will also handle the fund's activity in Europe, together with another partner who will join the Israeli arm.
"This is a significant vote of confidence in us and our work," Weinryb explained in the company announcement, adding that the European market was "a market with huge potential for us as an investment fund, and for the entire world as consumers of artificial intelligence (AI), mobility, Internet of Things, connectivity, and other technologies."
"The European market features exciting technologies that are greatly influenced by the conventional industrial concerns on the continent," Peer said. For example, the chip industry in France and auto industry in Germany are focuses of interest for the fund.
Qualcomm Ventures has operated in Israel since 2010, focusing on strategic investments in companies developing deep technologies. The fund has no fixed budget; it has a free hand in making investments backed by funding from Qualcomm. Since its activity began, Qualcomm Ventures has invested in 29 Israeli ventures, nine of which have been acquired for an aggregate total of $2 billion and 18 of which are still active.
Among Qualcomm Ventures' investments are Magisto, sold this year to Video platform Vimeo for $200 million; Waze, which has operated as an independent unit within Google since Google acquired it in 2013 for $1 billion; Ravello, acquired by Oracle for $500 million three years ago, and whose activity has since been discontinued; Wilocity, eventually acquired by Qualcomm itself for $300 million; Weka.IO, which is developing a file management system for AI ; Mantis Vision, which is developing 3D sensor photography technology; and enterprise storage company Excellero.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 4, 2019
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