Startup support for biometrics and AI development: Intema joins Nvidia Inception, new NEC fund

Intema, a subsidiary of Russian company MTS AI, has announced that its US$100 million AI accelerator program for education has become a member of the Nvidia Inception VC Alliance.

Notably, Intema is the MTS AI subsidiary that acquired leading face biometrics provider VisionLabs just a week ago.

The latest move was announced by the company and will enable Intema to potentially invest in a pool of more than 9,000 of Nvidia’s Inception program startup members.

Moreover, the collaboration will open up access to the mentor support initiatives and online resources of Nvidia’s Deep Learning Institute to both Intema’s investee and portfolio firms.

“This relationship supports our efforts to help promising startups during critical stages of development as they build and deliver more efficient AI solutions for global businesses and customers,” comments Mathew Torgow, head of the Nvidia Inception VC Alliance.

From a technical standpoint, Intema specializes in AI development with a focus on biometric user identification, behavioral and predictive analysis, image and voice recognition, computer vision, and edge computing.

“Investors need in-depth expertise in project evaluation, especially for projects at early stages,” says Intema’s Managing Partner Alexey Posternak.

“We want to become a quality filter and seal of excellence for the market and for investors to invest in companies that completed our acceleration program, and co-invest with us in later-stage projects,” Posternak concludes.

NEC establishes Orchestrating Future Fund

The new corporate venture capital (CVC) fund has been created to spur collaboration with customers and partners, as well as to promote new external services, knowledge, and technologies which may include biometrics.

The initiative has six areas of focus: 5G/6G, digital government/digital finance, smart city, DX, healthcare and life sciences, and carbon neutrality.

The fund will be managed by Translink Capital, with major investment areas expected to be the U.S., Israel, Europe, and Asia.

According to NEC Corporation, the fund aims to reach a total investment of $150 million by the end of June 2022.

Article Topics

AI  |  biometrics  |  funding  |  Intema  |  investment  |  NEC  |  Nvidia  |  research and development  |  smart cities  |  startup