In-Q-Tel
| File:In-Q-Tel logo in color (2021).svg | |
| Company type | Privately held not-for-profit corporation (501(c)(3)) |
|---|---|
| Genre | Technology research, Government (taxpayer) funded Venture capital firm |
| Predecessor | Peleus |
| Founded | September 29, 1999 (as Peleus) |
| Founders | Norm Augustine[1] Gilman Louie[2] |
| Headquarters | Arlington, Virginia, U.S.[3] |
Key people | Steve Bowsher (President and CEO)[4] |
| Services | Investment in information technology supporting U.S. intelligence capability |
| Revenue | 108,260,393 USD (2024) |
| Owner | Central Intelligence Agency |
| Footnotes / references [5] | |
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In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Arlington, Virginia. It invests in companies to keep the Central Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence agencies, equipped with the latest in information technology in support of United States intelligence capability.[2] The name "In-Q-Tel" is an intentional reference to Q, the fictional inventor who supplies technology to James Bond.[6]
History
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Originally named Peleus and known as In-Q-It, In-Q-Tel was "the brainchild" of former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet.[7] Gilman Louie was In-Q-Tel's first CEO[2][6] and Norm Augustine, a former CEO of Lockheed Martin, led the board of directors.[8] In-Q-Tel's mission is to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve United States national security interests. Congress approved funding for In-Q-Tel, which was increased in later years.[9] Origins of the corporation can also be traced to Ruth A. David, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Science & Technology in the 1990s and promoted the importance of rapidly advancing information technology for the CIA.[6]
In-Q-Tel now engages with entrepreneurs, growth companies, researchers, and venture capitalists to deliver technologies that provide superior capabilities for the CIA, DIA, NGA, and the wider intelligence community.[10] In-Q-Tel concentrates on three broad commercial technology areas: software, infrastructure and materials sciences.
Former CIA director George Tenet said,
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 SOCOM-DIA operation Able Danger], and to adapt the technology that online booksellers use and convert it to scour millions of pages of documents looking for unexpected results.[11]
In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google, worth over US$2.2 million, on November 15, 2005.[12] The share transfer was a result of Google's acquisition of Keyhole, Inc, the CIA-funded satellite mapping software now known as Google Earth.[13]
In August 2006, In-Q-Tel reviewed more than 5,800 business plans and invested approximately $150M in more than 90 companies.[2][14]
As of 2016, In-Q-Tel listed 325 investments, but more than 100 were secret, according to the Washington Post.[9]
Governance
[edit | edit source]In-Q-Tel is a Virginia-registered corporation,[15] legally independent of the CIA or any other government agency. The corporation is bound by its Charter agreement and annual contract with the CIA, which set out the relationship between the two organizations. In-Q-Tel's mission (to support the Intelligence Community's technical needs) is promoted by the In-Q-Tel Interface Center (QIC), an office within the CIA that facilitates communication and relationships between In-Q-Tel and government intelligence organizations.[16] While In-Q-Tel is a nonprofit corporation, it differs from IARPA and other models in that its employees and trustees can profit from its investments. A Wall Street Journal investigation found that in 2016, nearly half of In-Q-Tel's trustees had a financial connection with a company the corporation had funded.[9]
In-Q-Tel's current president and CEO is Steve Bowsher.
Original members of the board include Lee A. Ault, III, Norman R. Augustine, John Seely Brown, Stephen Friedman, Paul G. Kaminski, Jeong H. Kim, Alex J. Mandl, John N. McMahon, and William J. Perry.[17]
The chairman of the board is Michael M. Crow.[18]
Investments
[edit | edit source]This list of companies needs additional citations for verification. (September 2014) |
The company lists the majority of its investments on its website page.[19]
In-Q-Tel functions partially in public; however, what products it has and how they are used is strictly secret.[20] 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 of technology-watchers."[20]
Software
[edit | edit source]- ArcSight – secure software[9]
- Attensity – search engine
- Basis Technology – multilingual text analytics and cyber forensics[9]
- CallMiner – Phone speech analytics software
- Connectify – Wifi & VPN
- Convera RetrievalWare – search engine
- Destineer – games FPS training simulation
- Digital Reasoning – Synthesys v3.0 – review facts and associations at a glance
- Endeca – search data repositories
- FireEye – malware protection
- Forterra – virtual worlds for training
- Huddle – cloud-based content collaboration software
- Inktomi Corp – network infrastructure software
- InnoCentive – crowdsourcing websites
- Inxight – search engine
- Keyhole, Inc – Geospatial visualization application (Acquired by Google in 2004 and would go on to become Google Earth in 2005)
- Language Weaver – automatic language translation
- Lingotek – translation services
- MemSQL – Distributed, in-memory, SQL database management system for real-time analytics
- MetaCarta – search engine
- Palantir Technologies – data integration, search and discovery, knowledge management, and secure collaboration[21]
- Platfora – big data analytics and visualization
- Recorded Future – web intelligence and predictive analytics
- SRA OrionMagic – cms software
- Socrata – Open Data Solutions for Government Innovation
- Spotfire – visualization data analytics
- Tacit Knowledge Systems – internal software[9]
- Teradici Corporation – desktop virtualization
- TerraGo – location intelligence applications and software GeoPDF
- Traction Software – web 2.0[9]
- Visual Sciences – real-time visual analysis
- Wickr - Encrypted messaging application[22]
- zSpace (company) – 3-Dimensional holographic imaging displays
Infrastructure
[edit | edit source]- Hardware
- Xanadu Quantum Technologies[23] – photonic quantum computers
- Tyfone[24] – digital security for mobility, cloud, and IoT
- Stoke Space – reusable rocket[25]
- Data centers
- Bay Microsystems – packet processing and data traffic[9]
- Systems Research and Development – real-time data warehousing[9]
- Network Appliance – Decru (networked data storage)[9]
- JetCool – liquid cooling for data centres[26]
- Bioscience
Related personnel
[edit | edit source]- Dan Geer (2008–present) Chief Information Security Officer[28]
- Michael D. Griffin – former president; later administrator of NASA.[29][30]
- Norman R. Augustine[6]
- Gilman Louie – former CEO[31]
- Paul G. Kaminski – former director[32]
- Amit Yoran – former CEO[33]
- John Seely Brown[34]
- Stephen Friedman[34]
- William J. Perry[34]
- Alex J. Mandl[34]
- Rebecca Bace[35]
- Luciana Borio[36]
- Peter Barris[9]
- Anita K. Jones[9]
- Jami Miscik[9]
- Jeong H. Kim[37]
References
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- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ In-Q-Tel website: Investing in our National Security. Archived 2012-11-06 at the Wayback Machine Obtained August 2006.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ In-Q-Tel website. In-Q-Tel — Portfolio. Archived 2015-08-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Dan Geer leaves Verdasys for In-Q-Tel Archived 2008-05-29 at the Wayback Machine, by Ryan Naraine, ZDNet, May 28, 2008. Accessed 2008-07-09.
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