How Intel Capital Portfolio Companies are Helping Deliver the Future of 5G
Mobile World Congress usually focuses on phones and telco infrastructure. But at the 2018 event in Barcelona, Intel – and dozens of Intel Capital portfolio companies – showed attendees what's possible in the era of 5G connectivity.
5G will enable solutions that can't exist today, and the future is visible – and exciting – in the solutions our portfolio companies have developed. Enterprise customers all over the world are hunting innovations to stay on top of quickly shifting markets: Immersive entertainment, connected cars, smart cities and next-generation connectivity, to name a few. At Mobile World, Intel showcased game-changing disruptions made possible by our expertise in data. Intel's booth also included technology from Sedona Systems, an Israeli startup we've funded that lets network operators dramatically cut costs and better manage their networks via advanced analytics.
More Intel Capital portfolio companies could be found in "Four Years From Now," a Mobile World hall dedicated to up-and-coming solutions. And in a dedicated space for Intel Capital, eight more of our companies demoed their technologies; one of them, LISNR, secured a strategic partnership on the spot with Diconium, Germany's largest independent e-commerce company.
"Partnering with Diconium will help us gain more access into the European market," said LISNR President Eric Allen, whose Cincinnati-based startup uses an innovative protocol to send data over audio. Diconium co-founder Andreas Schwend said LISNR's "ground-breaking" technology will be "an essential building block" in helping his customers digitize their products and services.
Creating the conditions for such partnerships is at the heart of Intel Capital. Forty of our portfolio companies from 10 countries attended Mobile World Congress this year, and most of them leveraged Intel Capital's resources to meet with prospective customers – who included some of the world's largest automakers, banks, manufacturers and consumer electronics companies. Each participating portfolio startup got at least one follow-up request from a potential customer; most received multiple requests.
That match-making between our portfolio and Tier 1 enterprises will kick into even higher gear at our Intel Capital Global Summit, coming up in May in Palm Desert. Hardik Jain, co-founder of Austin-based portfolio startup GenXComm, said he can't wait for his first Global Summit, if Mobile World is any indication of what's in store.
"Thank you for arranging 1:1 meetings with customers," he said after the Barcelona event. "We got a chance to present live demonstrations of our technology – which is super helpful, because people believe when they see it working."
