Samsung set up 100 million dollar fund: Focus on cloud computing and mobile

Beijing time February 5 Morning News, Samsung Monday new set up a scale of 1 dollar Internet investment fund, hoping to strengthen the company's tentacles in the United States, and promote the cloud computing and mobile privacy and other areas of innovation.

Samsung said at the press conference that the Fund, known as the Samsung Catalytic fund (Samsung Catalyst Fund), focused on investment in components and subsystem companies at an early stage of development. Samsung Ventures America Fund, a $1 billion trillion-dollar US fund, will also continue to invest in mobile, cloud computing and IoT.

Samsung Terminal Equipment Solutions chief strategic officer Young Sohn said: "We have a lot of innovation in the past in Korea, because this is where we started, there are many engineers." But more than half of our employees are located overseas. ”

To start the Samsung Catalytic Fund, the company will hold the Samsung Creation Challenge (Samsungcreate Challenge) later this year, encouraging artists, engineers, entrepreneurs and other creative people to take advantage of Samsung's technology. The competition will provide the winners with 10 million of dollars in seed investment and will include an incubator project to provide the winners with the help of Samsung developers and their partners. The company is prepared to release more details in the future.

Samsung also discussed the launch of the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center in Menlo, Calif., at a press conference (Samsung strategy and Innovation Center). The business also opened offices in South Korea and Israel, led by Young Sohn. But he declined to disclose the size of the centre.

Samsung headquarters in South Korea, but in the United States in New Jersey and Texas have a small business. However, the company's business in Silicon Valley in the United States is relatively small. They are already starting to expand their California business, including a new research and development center in Mountain View. Samsung executives recently revealed that the company is recruiting a large number of engineers in the Silicon Valley region.

Many technology giants have set up investment departments to support start-ups that are congenial to their interests. Intel's venture capital division is one of the world's largest VC firms, and companies such as Google, Qualcomm and Microsoft all have sizeable VC funds. Samsung created the Samsung venture capital company (Samsung Venture Investment Corp.) at the end of 1999 and has already increased the frequency of U.S. investment. The company has also recently begun to invest more in Silicon Valley.

Unlike Intel, Qualcomm and Microsoft, Samsung's investment business focused on academic and small-scale creativity, young Sohn said. He added that Samsung venture capitalists could be attractive to entrepreneurs because of their patience.

The most recently sought after venture capital funds are social networks, health care and mobility, but the hardware sector has been left in the cold. In the fourth quarter of last year, only 4% of transactions were related to computer hardware and services, mobile accounted for 15% and internet companies accounted for 41%, according to CB Insights, a market research firm.

"Many venture capital companies are far away from basic science because it requires longer incubation and development time." Young Sohn said.

Young Sohn said the size of the 100 million-dollar fund was just a starting point for a series of Samsung promises. He said: "If we have other ideas, we will certainly increase the amount." ”

The investment fund announced in Monday and the Research and Development center in Silicon Valley will deepen Samsung's roots in Silicon Valley, while also promoting innovation in the areas related to Samsung's business objectives. "We are part of Silicon Valley. Young Sohn said.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)