In-Q-Tel
American defense industry venture capital firm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an independent American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Tysons, Virginia.[6][7] 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 corporation receives funding primarily through contracts with the CIA[8] and other U.S. government partners, but is not owned by the CIA.[9] The name "In-Q-Tel" is an intentional reference to Q, the fictional inventor who supplies technology to James Bond.[10]
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| 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 | Tysons, 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) |
| Website | www |
| Footnotes / references [5] | |
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.[11] Gilman Louie was In-Q-Tel's first CEO[2][10] and Norm Augustine, a former CEO of Lockheed Martin, led the board of directors.[12] 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.[13] 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.[10]
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.[14][15][16]
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.[17] Other U.S. government agencies also work with[18] 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.[19]
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.[20]
In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google, worth over US$2.2 million, on November 15, 2005.[21] The share transfer was a result of Google's acquisition of Keyhole, Inc, the CIA-funded satellite mapping software now known as Google Earth.[22]
In August 2006, In-Q-Tel reviewed more than 5,800 business plans and invested approximately $150M in more than 90 companies.[2][23]
As of 2016, In-Q-Tel listed 325 investments, but more than 100 were secret, according to the Washington Post.[13]
In 2018 and 2019, In-Q-Tel expanded its activities internationally with the establishment of offices in London and Sydney.[24][25] In December 2023, the organization announced the opening of a Singapore office to support engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.[26] According to the company’s own milestones record, a further office was added in Munich in 2023.[27]
Governance
In-Q-Tel is a Virginia-registered corporation,[28] 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.[29] 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.[13]
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.[30]
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,[31][32][33] while Darby transitioned to vice chair of the board. As of 2025, the chairman of the board is Michael M. Crow,[34] president of Arizona State University.[35][36]
Investments
In-Q-Tel operations are partially public, but specific products and their uses are classified.[37] Its portfolio, includes a range of technology startups and research initiatives.
Software
- ArcSight – secure software[13]
- Attensity – search engine
- Basis Technology – multilingual text analytics and cyber forensics[13]
- CallMiner – CX automation and conversation intelligence[38]
- 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[39]
- 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[13]
- Teradici Corporation – desktop virtualization
- TerraGo – location intelligence applications and software GeoPDF
- Traction Software – web 2.0[13]
- Visual Sciences – real-time visual analysis
- Wickr - Encrypted messaging application[40]
- zSpace (company) – 3-Dimensional holographic imaging displays
Infrastructure
- Hardware
- Xanadu Quantum Technologies[41] – photonic quantum computers
- Tyfone[42] – digital security for mobility, cloud, and IoT
- Stoke Space – reusable rocket[43]
- Starcloud - data centers in space
- Data centers
- Bay Microsystems – packet processing and data traffic[13]
- Systems Research and Development – real-time data warehousing[13]
- Network Appliance – Decru (networked data storage)[13]
- JetCool – liquid cooling for data centres[44]
- Bioscience
Related personnel
- Dan Geer (2008–present) Chief Information Security Officer[46]
- Michael D. Griffin – former president; later administrator of NASA.[47][48]
- Norman R. Augustine[10]
- Gilman Louie – former CEO[49]
- Paul G. Kaminski – former director[50]
- Amit Yoran – former CEO[51]
- John Seely Brown[52]
- Stephen Friedman[52]
- William J. Perry[52]
- Alex J. Mandl[52]
- Rebecca Bace[53]
- Luciana Borio[54]
- Peter Barris[13]
- Anita K. Jones[13]
- Jami Miscik[13]
- Jeong H. Kim[55]