Wikipedia / In-Q-Tel
Wikipedia / In-Q-Tel
In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an independent American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Tysons, Virginia. It invests in companies to keep the US Intelligence Community equipped with the latest in information technology in support of United States intelligence capability. The corporation receives funding primarily through contracts with the CIA and other U.S. government partners, but is not owned by the CIA. The name "In-Q-Tel" is an intentional reference to Q, the fictional inventor who supplies technology to James Bond.
History
Originally named Peleus and known as In-Q-It, In-Q-Tel was "the brainchild" of former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet. Gilman Louie was In-Q-Tel's first CEO and Norm Augustine, a former CEO of Lockheed Martin, led the board of directors. 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. 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.
The organization was created in part to provide the intelligence community with access to commercially developed technologies rather than relying solely on classified internal research and development.
In-Q-Tel 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. Other U.S. government agencies also work with The Department of Homeland Security's Science & Technology Directorate has described its collaboration with In-Q-Tel as a means of identifying emerging technologies for DHS partners.
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.
In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google, worth over US$2.2 million, on November 15, 2005. The share transfer was a result of Google's acquisition of Keyhole, Inc, the CIA-funded satellite mapping software now known as Google Earth.
In August 2006, In-Q-Tel reviewed more than 5,800 business plans and invested approximately $150M in more than 90 companies.
As of 2016, In-Q-Tel listed 325 investments, but more than 100 were secret, according to the Washington Post.
In 2018 and 2019, In-Q-Tel expanded its activities internationally with the establishment of offices in London and Sydney. In December 2023, the organization announced the opening of a Singapore office to support engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the company’s own milestones record, a further office was added in Munich in 2023.
Governance
In-Q-Tel is a Virginia-registered corporation, 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 between In-Q-Tel and government intelligence organizations. 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.
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, Michael M. Crow, Stephen Friedman, Paul G. Kaminski, Jeong H. Kim, Alex J. Mandl, John N. McMahon, and William J. Perry.
Christopher A. Darby was appointed president and chief executive officer in 2006, a position he held until December 2023. On 14 December 2023, Steve Bowsher, formerly the organisation's president, was appointed to succeed him as CEO, while Darby transitioned to vice chair of the board. As of 2009, the chairman of the board is Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University.
Investments
In-Q-Tel operations are partially public, but specific products and their uses are classified. Its portfolio, includes a range of technology startups and research initiatives.
Software
A4Vision – 3D facial imaging
Adapx – Microsoft Office & GIS
Agent Logic – event detection and response software – Webspector webpage change software
Algorithmic - Infrastructure for deploying and scaling AI/ML models
Authentica – secure messaging and secure document sharing
AzTE] PRISM – handwriting recognition
Boundless Spatial – geospatial software - acquired by Planet Labs
Carnegie Speech – speech recognition
Cassatt – desktop software
D2iQ (formerly Mesosphere) – Apache Mesos and Kubernetes consulting firm
Dreadnode - AI and offensive security testing
FMS – analysis, visualization, and knowledgebase to the United States Intelligence Community
Fetch Technologies – Internet Data Management -bots & RSS
Fuel3D – 3D scanning
GeoIQ FortiusOne – visualization on maps
Geosemble – unstructured data analytics and geospatial software - acquired by TerraGo
HEO - Space Imagery
Initiate Systems – real-time multiple database software
Intelliseek – search engine
Internet Evidence Finder – Digital forensic tool
Interset – Security Analytics/User Behavior Analytics
Looking Glass Factory - Holography
Mohomine mohoClassifier – organises mass data
NovoDynamics – Arabic character recognition
Nozomi Networks – OT and IoT security and visibility
Oculis Labs – visual cyber security solutions
PiXlogic – visual search
Quantum4D – visualization technology
ReversingLabs – malware detection and analysis
Sayari – financial intelligence and supply chain risk software mapping global corporate ownership and commercial relationships
SRD – identity resolution software
SafeWeb PrivacyMatrix – browsing (closed in Nov. 2001)
Silver Tail Systems – website fraud prevention
Stratify – organizes mass data
TRX Systems – 3D mapping
Visible Technologies – social media monitoring
Zaplet – email
ArcSight – secure software
Attensity – search engine
Basis Technology – multilingual text analytics and cyber forensics
CallMiner – CX automation and conversation intelligence
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 Systems – 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
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
Teradici Corporation – desktop virtualization
TerraGo – location intelligence applications and software GeoPDF
Traction Software – web 2.0
Visual Sciences – real-time visual analysis
Wickr - Encrypted messaging application
zSpace (company) – 3-Dimensional holographic imaging displays
Infrastructure
Hardware
Xarion Laser Acoustics – acoustic sensing and ultrasonic imaging
Xanadu Quantum Technologies – photonic quantum computers
Tyfone – digital security for mobility, cloud, and IoT
Stoke Space – reusable rocket
Starcloud - data centers in space
Data centers
Bay Microsystems – packet processing and data traffic
Systems Research and Development – real-time data warehousing
Network Appliance – Decru (networked data storage)
JetCool – liquid cooling for data centres
Bioscience
Natural resources
Phoenix Tailings - rare earths
Related personnel
Dan Geer (2008–present) Chief Information Security Officer
Michael D. Griffin – former president; later administrator of NASA.
Gilman Louie – former CEO
Paul G. Kaminski – former director
Amit Yoran – former CEO
References
External links