In-Q-Tel
Encyclopedia
In-Q-Tel of Arlington, Virginia, United States is a not-for-profit venture capital
firm that invests in high-tech companies for the sole purpose of keeping the Central Intelligence Agency
equipped with the latest in information technology in support of United States
intelligence
capability. Originally named Peleus
and known as In-Q-It, In-Q-Tel was launched in 1999 under the direction of Gilman Louie
. In-Q-Tel’s mission is to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve United States national security
interests. Working from an evolving strategic blueprint defining the Intelligence Community
's critical technology needs, In-Q-Tel engages with entrepreneur
s, growth companies, researchers, and venture capitalists to deliver technologies that provide superior capabilities for the CIA
, DIA
, NGA
, and the larger Intelligence Community. In-Q-Tel concentrates on three broad commercial technology areas: software, infrastructure
and materials science
s.
Former CIA director George Tenet
says,
In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google
Inc., worth over $2.2 million, on Nov 15, 2005. The stocks were a result of Google
’s acquisition of Keyhole
, the CIA funded satellite
map
ping software now known as Google Earth
.
As of August 2006, In-Q-Tel had reviewed more than 5,800 business plans, invested some $150 million in more than 90 companies, and delivered more than 130 technology solutions to the intelligence community. In 2005 it was said to be funded with about $37 million a year from the CIA.
Former board members include Jim Breyer
, Dr. Anita Jones and Gilman Louie
.
company records identifies the following companies as being selected investments of In-Q-Tel:
In-Q-Tel functions partially in public, however what products it has and how they are used is strictly secret. According to the Washington Post, virtually any U.S. entrepreneur, inventor or research scientist working on ways to analyze data has probably received a phone call from In-Q-Tel or at least been Googled by its staff. The Constitutional repercussions of this disclosure alarm some critics.
, which sets out the relationship between the two organizations, and by an annual contract with the CIA. In-Q-Tel is a nonprofit corporation. Unusually, however, its employees can profit from its investments, which differentiates it from IARPA and other models. According to public records, In-Q-Tel's current principals include:
Other critics warn citizens not to contact this organization for venture capital and instead to contact DARPA or IARPA.
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firm that invests in high-tech companies for the sole purpose of keeping the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
equipped with the latest in information technology in support of United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
capability. Originally named Peleus
Peleus
In Greek mythology, Pēleus was a hero whose myth was already known to the hearers of Homer in the late 8th century BCE. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly; he was the father of Achilles...
and known as In-Q-It, In-Q-Tel was launched in 1999 under the direction of Gilman Louie
Gilman Louie
Gilman Louie is technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then ran the CIA venture capital fund. He graduated in 1983 from San Francisco State University. He attended the while at Harvard Business School in 1997....
. In-Q-Tel’s mission is to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve United States national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
interests. Working from an evolving strategic blueprint defining the Intelligence Community
Intelligence community
Intelligence community may refer to* Bangladeshi intelligence community* Croatian intelligence community * Israeli intelligence community* Italian intelligence community, see SISMI...
's critical technology needs, In-Q-Tel engages with entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
s, growth companies, researchers, and venture capitalists to deliver technologies that provide superior capabilities for the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, DIA
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...
, NGA
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States with the primary mission of collecting, analyzing and distributing geospatial intelligence in support of national security. NGA was formerly known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency ...
, and the larger Intelligence Community. In-Q-Tel concentrates on three broad commercial technology areas: software, infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
and materials science
Materials science
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...
s.
Former CIA director George Tenet
George Tenet
George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
says,
We [the CIA] decided to use our limited dollars to leverage technology developed elsewhere. In 1999 we chartered ... In-Q-Tel. ... While we pay the bills, In-Q-Tel is independent of CIA. CIA identifies pressing problems, and In-Q-Tel provides the technology to address them. The In-Q-Tel alliance has put the Agency back at the leading edge of technology ... This ... collaboration ... enabled CIA to take advantage of the technology that Las Vegas uses to identify corrupt card players and apply it to link analysis for terrorists [cf. the parallel data-mining effort by the SOCOMUnited States Special Operations CommandThe United States Special Operations Command is the Unified Combatant Command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations Commands of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps of the United States Armed Forces. The command is part of the Department of Defense...
-DIADiaDia is free and open source general-purpose diagramming software, developed originally by Alexander Larsson. Dia uses a controlled single document interface similar to GIMP and Sodipodi.- Features :...
operation Able DangerAble DangerAble Danger was a classified military planning effort led by the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency...
], and to adapt the technology that online booksellers use and convert it to scour millions of pages of documents looking for unexpected results.
In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Inc., worth over $2.2 million, on Nov 15, 2005. The stocks were a result of Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
’s acquisition of Keyhole
Keyhole, Inc
Keyhole, Inc., founded in 2001, was a pioneering software development company specializing in geospatial data visualization applications and was acquired by Google in 2004...
, the CIA funded satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
ping software now known as Google Earth
Google Earth
Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
.
As of August 2006, In-Q-Tel had reviewed more than 5,800 business plans, invested some $150 million in more than 90 companies, and delivered more than 130 technology solutions to the intelligence community. In 2005 it was said to be funded with about $37 million a year from the CIA.
Former board members include Jim Breyer
Jim Breyer
James W. Breyer is a partner of Accel Partners, President of Accel Management Company, and founder/CEO of Breyer Capital . He has been a lead or co-lead investor in over thirty consumer internet, media, and technology companies that have completed public offerings or successful mergers...
, Dr. Anita Jones and Gilman Louie
Gilman Louie
Gilman Louie is technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then ran the CIA venture capital fund. He graduated in 1983 from San Francisco State University. He attended the while at Harvard Business School in 1997....
.
Selected investments
Of those companies listed on In-Q-Tel's investment website page, Hoover'sHoover's
Hoover's, Inc., a subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet, is a business research company that has provided information on U.S. and foreign companies and industries since 1990. Since 1993, the company has made its information available on its website.-Operations:...
company records identifies the following companies as being selected investments of In-Q-Tel:
- 3VR
- A4Vision
- Adapx
- Agent LogicAgent LogicAgent Logic is a software company with headquarters in Northern Virginia.The company, founded in 1999, is best known for its complex event processing software, RulePoint, which combines user-defined logic with multiple sources of data....
- ArcSightArcSightArcSight, an HP company, was founded in 2000 and is a technology company that provides security information and event management solutions. ArcSight headquarters are located in Cupertino, California, USA, with sales offices around the globe including the United States, the United Kingdom, France,...
- AttensityAttensityAttensity provides text analytics software for Customer Experience Management . Attensity's software applications extract facts, relationships and sentiment from unstructured data, which comprise approximately 85% of the information companies store electronically.The software uses natural language...
- Basis Technology
- Bay Microsystems
- CallMiner
- Cambrios Technology
- Convera
- Decru
- Dust NetworksDust NetworksDust Networks, Inc. is a company specializing in the design and manufacture of wireless sensor networks for industrial applications including process monitoring, condition monitoring, asset management, Environment, Health and Safety monitoring and power management...
- Electro Energy, Inc.
- Endeca
- FireEye
- Fluidigm
- FMS, Inc.
- GemaltoGemaltoGemalto is an international digital security company, providing secure personal devices such as smart cards and tokens in addition to software applications and managed services. The company was formed in June 2006 by the combination of two companies Axalto and Gemplus International...
- IatroQuest
- Intelliseek Inc.
- InxightInxightInxight Software, Inc. is a software company specializing in visualization, information retrieval and natural language processing. It was bought by Business Objects in 2007; Business Objects was in turn acquired by SAP AG in 2008. Founded in 1997, Inxight is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California...
- Keyhole, IncKeyhole, IncKeyhole, Inc., founded in 2001, was a pioneering software development company specializing in geospatial data visualization applications and was acquired by Google in 2004...
- KofaxKofaxKofax is a company which manufactures and sells computer hardware, software and services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:...
- Language WeaverLanguage WeaverSDL Language Weaver is a Los Angeles, California–based company that was founded in 2002 by the University of Southern California's Kevin Knight and Daniel Marcu, to commercialize a statistical approach to automatic language translation and natural language processing - now known globally as...
- MetaCartaMetaCartaMetaCarta is aprivate company providing geographic solutions since 2001. Their headquarters are in Cambridge, MA with additional offices located in Washington DC; Houston, TX; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; and New York, NY.-History:...
- MotionDSPMotionDSPMotionDSP is a Silicon Valley startup which has developed multi-frame video enhancement software that improves the quality video using super-resolution techniques. Its patented technology is available in video forensic software called...
- MetricStreamMetricStreamMetricStream is a Governance, Risk and Compliance Management platform provider, headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. MetricStream solutions are based on its Enterprise Compliance Platform , which is built on the J2EE architecture.Details...
- NanosysNanosysNanosys is a nanotechnology company located in Palo Alto, California founded in 2001.Nanosys, Inc designs products based on a technology platform that incorporates high performance inorganic nanostructures...
- NetBase Solutions
- Network ChemistryNetwork ChemistryNetwork Chemistry is a Wi-Fi security startup based in Redwood City, California. The firm was founded in 2002 by several co-founders including Rob Markovich and Dr...
- NovoDynamicsNovoDynamicsNovoDynamics is a software development company specializing in image analysis, pattern recognition and data mining.Though NovoDynamics is perhaps best known for developing Arabic Optical Character Recognition and image enhancement applications for Middle Eastern languages, the company’s data...
- Palantir TechnologiesPalantir TechnologiesPalantir Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in Tysons Corner, Virginia, New York City and Covent Garden, London, is a software company that produces the Palantir Government and Palantir Finance platforms...
- Paratek
- piXlogic
- Qynergy
- Recorded FutureRecorded FutureRecorded Future Inc. is a software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, specializing in web intelligence and predictive analytics...
- Rosum
- Seahawk Biosystems
- Soflinx
- SpotfireSpotfireSpotfire was a business intelligence company based in Somerville, Massachusetts. It was bought by TIBCO in 2007.-History:Spotfire's origins trace back to the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park where, in the early 1990s, Christopher Ahlberg, a visiting...
- Stratify, Inc.
- SRD, Inc.
- Tacit SoftwareTacit SoftwareTacit Software was a company that provides expertise and knowledge search software for enterprises and consumers. It was acquired by Oracle Corp in November 2008, and its assets were rolled into the Oracle Beehive collaboration platform.,...
- Traction SoftwareTraction SoftwareTraction Software, Inc. is a software company headquartered in Providence, RI, with an international presence in Tokyo via its partner Applied Knowledge Japan Co, Ltd. It is the creator of the widely used Traction TeamPage Enterprise 2.0 social software platform which participates in the...
- VeracodeVeracodeVeracode is a Burlington, Massachusetts-based application security company offering a cloud-based platform for application risk management. Veracode was founded in 2006 by a team of application security practitioners from @stake, Guardent, Symantec, and VeriSign to provide an automated third party...
- Visual Sciences
- WiSpryWiSpryWiSpry, Inc. is a fabless RF semiconductor company based in Irvine, California.Using RF MEMS technology, WiSpry develops and markets RF Silicon integrated circuits, components and modules to manufacturers of wireless communication products.WiSpry is one of Orange County's more highly funded...
In-Q-Tel functions partially in public, however what products it has and how they are used is strictly secret. According to the Washington Post, virtually any U.S. entrepreneur, inventor or research scientist working on ways to analyze data has probably received a phone call from In-Q-Tel or at least been Googled by its staff. The Constitutional repercussions of this disclosure alarm some critics.
Governance
In-Q-Tel is a Virginia-registered corporation, legally independent of the CIA or any other government agency. In-Q-Tel is not answerable to the American people or to the CIA, it is bound by its Charter agreements with the State of Virginia and the CIACentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, which sets out the relationship between the two organizations, and by an annual contract with the CIA. In-Q-Tel is a nonprofit corporation. Unusually, however, its employees can profit from its investments, which differentiates it from IARPA and other models. According to public records, In-Q-Tel's current principals include:
- Christopher A. R. Darby, President/CEO
- Bruce Adams, Secretary
- Michael M. Crow, Chairman
- Paul G. Kaminiski, Director
- Jeong H. KimJeong H. KimDr. Jeong-Hoon Kim is a Korean-American electrical engineer and administrator who, since 2005, has served as president of Bell Labs.Jeong Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea. He came to the U.S. from Korea with his father and stepmother at the age of 14. He began school in Anne Arundel County,...
, Director
Other related personnel
Numerous noteworthy business and intelligence community professionals have been involved with In-Q-Tel at various times, including the following:- Michael D. GriffinMichael D. GriffinMichael Douglas Griffin is an American physicist and aerospace engineer. From April 13, 2005 to January 20, 2009 he served as Administrator of NASA, the space agency of the United States...
– former President; later Administrator of NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
. - Norman R. Augustine
- Gilman LouieGilman LouieGilman Louie is technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then ran the CIA venture capital fund. He graduated in 1983 from San Francisco State University. He attended the while at Harvard Business School in 1997....
- Amit YoranAmit YoranAmit Yoran was the National Cyber Security Division director within the United States Department of Homeland Security. He took up the post in September 2003 and resigned in October 2004....
- John Seely BrownJohn Seely BrownJohn Seely Brown is a researcher who specializes in organizational studies with a particular bent towards the organizational implications of computer-supported activities....
- Stephen FriedmanStephen FriedmanStephen Friedman may refer to:*Stephen Friedman , American financial executive; has held, since 2005, the post of Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board...
- Paul McMahonPaul McMahonPaul Joseph McMahon is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm offbreak bowler.McMahon has represented Nottinghamshire in first-class cricket since 2002...
- William PerryWilliam PerryWilliam James Perry is an American businessman and engineer who was the United States Secretary of Defense from February 3, 1994, to January 23, 1997, under President Bill Clinton...
- Alex J. MandlAlex J. MandlAlex J. Mandl is a notable Austrian-American businessman, and currently Executive Chairman of smart card giant Gemalto. He has been named "One of America's Most Powerful Businessmen" by Forbes magazine.-Early life:...
- Craig Goss
- Rob Painter – former Director for Technology Assessment; left to become Senior Federal Sales Manager at GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
. - Christopher K. TuckerChristopher K. TuckerChristopher K. Tucker is businessman and social entrepreneur active in the geospatial industry and the US national security community, and as Principal of Yale House Ventures, manages a portfolio of technology startups and social ventures....
, first chief strategic officer
Views of In-Q-Tel
"In my view the organization has been far more successful than I dreamed it would be," said Norman R. Augustine, who was recruited in 1998 to help set up In-Q-Tel and is an In-Q-Tel trustee. Critics have questioned the societal benefit gained from the secretive investments or whether the organization has at all times been lawful.Other critics warn citizens not to contact this organization for venture capital and instead to contact DARPA or IARPA.
External links
- In-Q-Tel Corporate Site
- White Paper on the In-Q-Tel concept
- Federal Computer Week article about In-Q-Tel
- Government Executive article about In-Q-Tel
- Corporate fact sheet
- Business Executives for National Security: The Report of the Independent Panel on the CIA In-Q-Tel Venture