Intel Capital, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and Telefonica Digital Make Strategic Investment in Expect Labs

SAN FRANCISCO, April 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Expect Labs, a San Francisco startup that is developing a platform to power a new generation of intelligent digital assistants, today announced a strategic investment from Intel Capital, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC), and Telefonica Digital.  Expect Labs' technology platform, the Anticipatory Computing Engine, is the first commercial solution designed to analyze and understand conversations in real-time and proactively find related information. This new strategic investment will accelerate Expect Labs' efforts to extend their technology platform across different industry verticals and geographic markets.

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Founded in 2011, Expect Labs has pioneered the development of technology that enables our computing devices and applications to pay attention continuously and better anticipate the information that we need. Over the past two years, Expect Labs' team of PhDs and research experts have developed a new class of technologies to understand the meaning of continuous conversations. Based on this understanding, Expect Labs' platform can model the context of your interactions in real-time, and proactively find information you may want before you need to search for it. As part of this new strategic investment, Expect Labs will begin working to enable new types of context-aware, predictive intelligence in a wide variety of applications and devices.

Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, has been investing in a wide range of hardware and software technologies to both make computing devices more intelligent and context-aware and to help create new types of user interfaces driven by voice, touch, and gesture. 

"We are entering an era where the computing devices in our lives will not only be able to understand what we say, but they will also do a much better job anticipating the information we may need, "said Dave Flanagan, Intel Capital.  "We look forward to working with Expect Labs to explore ways to achieve this vision." 

Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC) is the global investment arm of Samsung, the leading global manufacturer of mobile devices and flat-panel displays. Through this partnership, SVIC expects to empower Expect Labs to enable new types of intelligent, voice-driven and context aware behavior across a wide range of devices including smartphones, tablets and smart TVs.  

"Expect Labs has taken a unique approach to modeling context using sensor signals, such as GPS and audio, that are available in the new generation of computing devices, " said Brannon Lacey, Principal at Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.  "We think this approach is an important step toward creating a new layer of application and device intelligence."

With over 315 million customers, Telefonica is one of the largest telecommunications operators worldwide.  As part of its investment, Telefonica intends to utilize Expect Labs' technology and expertise to enhance several product lines including next-generation communications applications and advertising initiatives. 

Tracy Isacke, Head of Telefonica Digital Ventures, commented: "Expect Labs is at the cutting edge of the future of search, developing solutions that will change the way we discover and share information.  We see huge potential for its technology across all areas of our business, and this investment opens the door to close collaboration between our technical teams."

"In just a few years, we will live in a world where the connected devices all around us will know who we are, understand what we say, and be far more capable of interpreting our intentions and anticipating our needs, " added Timothy Tuttle, Expect Labs CEO and founder.  "We are delighted that leading global companies like Intel Capital, Samsung Investment Venture Corporation and Telefonica Digital share this vision, and we are looking forward to exploring ways to work with them to create a new generation of intelligent applications and devices."

Intel Capital, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Telefonica Digital will join Expect Labs' existing investors, including Google, Greylock, Bessemer, IDG Ventures, KPG Ventures, Quest Venture Partners as well as several well-known angel investors.

Since emerging from stealth mode in 2012, Expect Labs has been widely recognized as a leader in the fast-emerging field of Anticipatory Computing and has received numerous accolades.  Expect Labs was selected as a finalist at the 2012 TechCrunch Disrupt startup competition, the 2013 CES Mobile App Showdown, and the 2013 SXSW Innovative Technology Accelerator.  Expect Labs' iPad app MindMeld was also selected as "Best in Show" at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show and was featured by Popular Science as one of the "hottest gadgets" of 2013.

About Expect Labs
Expect Labs is a technology company based in San Francisco that is building a platform to power a new generation of digital assistants that can understand continuous conversation and find the information you want before you need to search for it. Expect Labs is also the creator of the iPad app called MindMeld, which is the first intelligent assistant that can actually understand your conversations in real-time to make it easy to find and share related information as you talk. Expect Labs was founded in early 2011 by successful, repeat entrepreneurs who have built and sold large-scale Internet businesses. The team includes PhDs and world-class researchers from places like the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, Bell Labs and HP Labs. The company is backed by Google, Samsung, Intel, Greylock Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, IDG Ventures, KPG Ventures, Quest Venture Partners and several prominent angels. For more information on Expect Labs, visit www.expectlabs.com or follow @ExpectLabs and @GetMindMeld on Twitter.

About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, health, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$10.8 billion in over 1,276 companies in 54 countries. In that timeframe, 201 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2012, Intel Capital invested US$352 million in 150 investments with approximately 57 percent of funds invested outside North America. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

About Samsung Venture Investment Corporation
Samsung Venture Investment Corporation manages investment and investment-related activities for Samsung affiliate companies. The investment mandate for Samsung Venture Investment Corporation tracks closely to the strategic priorities of Samsung affiliate companies' core operating divisions, and encompasses investments in semiconductors, displays, telecommunications, and consumer electronics.

About Telefonica Digital
Telefonica Digital is a global business division of Telefonica. Its mission is to seize the opportunities within the digital world and deliver new growth for Telefonica through research & development, venture capital, global partnerships and digital services such as cloud computing, mobile advertising, M2M and eHealth. It is also driving innovation in over the top communications under a new umbrella brand called TU and in Big Data through Telefonica Dynamic Insights.

Telefonica Digital will deliver these new products and services to Telefonica's 315 million customers as well as entering new markets. It is headquartered in London with regional centres in Silicon Valley, Sao Paulo, Spain and Tel Aviv. Jajah, Terra, Media Networks Latin America, 48 and giffgaff are all managed under the Telefonica Digital umbrella.

To sign up for news alerts and read commentary on Telefonica Digital, visit www.telefonica.com/digitalhub and track them on Twitter @tefdigital

Media Contacts
Expect Labs
Jeff Koo, (415) 321-1866
[email protected]

Intel Capital
Maria Cibeta
[email protected]

Samsung Venture Investment Corporation
Brannon Lacey
[email protected]

Telefonica Digital
Pam Smith
[email protected]

SOURCE Expect Labs