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Revision as of 21:00, 9 March 2011

In-Q-Tel
Company typePrivately held company
GenreTechnology research, Venture capital
Founded29 September 1999
FounderNorm Augustine[1]
HeadquartersArlington, VA[2]
Key people
Christopher Darby, CEO, Various, Board of Trustees[3]
ProductsInvestments
RevenueNot-for-profit corporation
Websitehttp://www.iqt.org/

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.[4] Originally named Peleus and known as In-Q-It, In-Q-Tel was launched in 1999 under the direction of Gilman Louie.[4] 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 entrepreneurs, 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 sciences.

Former CIA director George Tenet 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 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.[5]

In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google Inc., worth over $2.2 million, on Nov 15, 2005.[6] The stocks were a result of Google’s acquisition of Keyhole, the CIA funded satellite mapping 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.[4][7] In 2005 it was said to be funded with about $37 million a year from the CIA.[8]

Selected investments

Of those companies listed on In-Q-Tel's investment website page,[9] Hoover's company records identifies the following companies as being selected investments of In-Q-Tel:[4]

In-Q-Tel functions partially in public, however what products it has and how they are used is strictly secret.[8] 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.[8] 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 answerable to the American people and to the CIA,[8] it is bound by its Charter agreements with the State of Virginia and the CIA, 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[8], which differentiates it from IARPA and other models. According to public records, In-Q-Tel's current principals include:

Numerous noteworthy business and intelligence community professionals have been involved with In-Q-Tel at various times, including the following:

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.[8] 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.


References

  1. ^ A new partnership between the CIA and the private sector
  2. ^ Careers at In-Q-Tel (address)
  3. ^ List of the Board of Trustees
  4. ^ a b c d Hoover's (August 30, 2006) Hoover's Company Records: In-Q-Tel, Inc.
  5. ^ George Tenet, At The Center Of The Storm: My Years at the CIA (Harper Press, 1997), p.26.
  6. ^ CIA sells Google shares
  7. ^ In-Q-Tel website: Investing in our National Security. Obtained August 2006.
  8. ^ a b c d e f n-Q-Tel, CIA's Venture Arm, Invests in Secrets
  9. ^ In-Q-Tel website. In-Q-Tel — Investments. Obtained January 8, 2006.
  10. ^ CIA's In-Q-Tel Backs Video Enhancement Tools Developer MotionDSP


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