Hello. This is the CIA. We want a stake in your business

This morning, at work, sipping coffee, I ran through the eyes of an information feed on techcrunch.com. His eyes focused on the phrase that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) provided financial support to the fifth-largest startup in the United States.

The news itself didn’t really impress me, but I recalled an episode five years ago when I was hired by one of the startups in San Bruno to solve a small problem with authentication using SAMLprotocol. I was quite keen on the project so that it wasn’t very much before building relationships with my colleagues and then one of Fridays the people in the office started talking about social networks in a relaxed way ... I didn’t worry about putting my bast on the line, throwing the phrase into the conversation - that they say de "social networks is the best CIA project in the last few decades." My remark was greeted with hysterical laughter and applause ...

At that moment, I actually did not expect that the startup that hired me owes its existence to just government agencies and similar funds.

So what is the CIA fund that finances US startups?

Turn to the In-Q-Tel Foundation website (IQT)which explains why the CIA created its investment venture fund. Nothing ordinary, actually. In 1998, the CIA decided that technology development was a priority for the CIA. Once they decided, they did so by establishing a fund to receive technology from the private sector.

The range of fund financing is quite specific and is not limited to three main areas:

• Analytics
• Big Date
• Security

The CIA’s list of funded companies is fascinating with its many well-known startups. Prior to that, the fund’s employees worked in well-known companies and know the technology and specifics of working in a startup by hearsay.

But back to my morning coffee and ask ourselves the question: why do you have to study the news item of the tech crunch? Yes, obviously, we look for example who received the funding? - yeah, IQT today allocated $ 12 million to develop materials for 3D printers

Jul 24, 2015 Voxel8 $ 12M Series A

Normally soon to the guys in Voxel8new employees will be needed if you are personally interested in this area why not leave a resume. Having run through the list of financing, we look at the trend and we are wondering for ourselves what makes sense in the future to turn our attention.

In fact, the tech crunch provides information about the work of the whole CIA unit and looking at the fact that the IQT venture fund is financing and trying to develop in a technological trend, it gives a lot of information for thought.

List of fund investments since May 2012.
I have allocated investments in excess of $ 10 million. The largest investment of $ 150 million was allotted on August 29, 2013 by Pure Storage to a flash storage company.

Date Invested
Jul 24, 2015 Voxel8 $ 12M Series A -
May 28, 2015 Tyfone $ 6.6M Series C -
May 6, 2015 Fuel3D undisclosed amount Venture -
Apr 16, 2015 Recorded Future $ 12M Series D -
Apr 1, 2015 BlueLine Grid $ 3.8M Undisclosed -
Sep 26, 2014 MemSQL undisclosed amount Undisclosed -
Jul 18, 2014 Expect Labs undisclosed amount Undisclosed -
Mar 19, 2014 Platfora $ 38M Series C -
Mar 6, 2014 Redlen Technologies $ 5.5M Venture -
Dec 1, 2013 NerVve Technologies undisclosed amount Venture -
Oct 28, 2013 Paxata $ 8M Series B -
Sep 1, 2013 Protonex Technology Corporation undisclosed amount Venture -
Aug 29, 2013 Pure Storage $ 150M Series E -
Aug 26, 2013 HyTrust $ 18.5M Series C -
Aug 5, 2013 Weather Analytics $ 1.8M Convertible Note -
Jul 31, 2013 Apigee $ 35M Series F -
Jun 26, 2013 Socrata $ 18M Series B -
May 15, 2013 Boundless Spatial, Inc. $ 3M Series A George Hoyem
May 14, 2013 Cloudant $ 12M Series B -
Apr 30, 2013 Skytree $ 18M Series A -
Apr 16, 2013 RedOwl Analytics $ 100k Grant -
Apr 5, 2013 Narrative Science $ 550k Venture -
Mar 29, 2013 QD Vision $ 20M Series E -
Mar 1, 2013 AppThwack $ 600k Seed -
Jan 22, 2013 Goal Zero $ 7M Venture -
Dec 7, 2012 Cloudera $ 65M Series E -
Nov 15, 2012 Quanterix $ 18.5M Series C -
Nov 13, 2012 Platfora $ 20M Series B -
Nov 11, 2012 BIO-NEMS $ 725k Debt Financing -
Oct 4, 2012 D-Wave Systems $ 30M Venture -
Oct 2, 2012 Cloudant undisclosed amount Undisclosed -
Sep 26, 2012 D-Wave Systems $ 1.2M Venture -
Sep 5, 2012 Tenable Network Security $ 50M Series A -
Sep 5, 2012 908 Devices $ 8.1M Series A -
Sep 1, 2012 Claremont BioSolutions undisclosed amount Venture -
Aug 23, 2012 Mocana $ 25M Series D -
Jun 6, 2012 Delphix $ 25M Series C -
Jun 1, 2012 Imprint Energy undisclosed amount Venture -
May 24, 2012 Huddle $ 24M Series C -
May 15, 2012 InView Technology $ 1.5M Series A -