In-Q-Tel
TypePrivately held not-for-profit corporation
GenreTechnology research, Government (taxpayer) funded Venture capital firm
PredecessorPeleus
FoundedSeptember 29, 1999 (1999-09-29) (as Peleus)
FoundersNorm Augustine[1]
Gilman Louie[2]
HeadquartersArlington, Virginia, U.S.[3]
Key people
Steve Bowsher (President and CEO)[4]
ServicesInvestment in information technology supporting U.S. intelligence capability
OwnerCentral Intelligence Agency
Websitewww.iqt.org

In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Arlington, Virginia. 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 name "In-Q-Tel" is an intentional reference to Q, the fictional inventor who supplies technology to James Bond.[5]

History

Originally named Peleus and known as In-Q-It, In-Q-Tel was founded by Norm Augustine, a former CEO of Lockheed Martin, and by Gilman Louie, who was In-Q-Tel's first CEO.[2][5][6] In-Q-Tel's mission is to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve United States national security interests. According to the Washington post, In-Q-Tel started as the idea of then CIA director George Tenet. Congress approved funding for In-Q-Tel, which was increased in later years.[7] Origins of the corporation can also be traced to Ruth A. David, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology in the 1990s and promoted the importance of rapidly advancing information technology for the CIA.[5] In-Q-Tel now 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.[8] 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.[9]

In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google, worth over US$2.2 million, on November 15, 2005.[10] The shares were a result of Google's acquisition of Keyhole, Inc, the CIA-funded satellite mapping software now known as Google Earth.[11]

In August 2006, In-Q-Tel reviewed more than 5,800 business plans and invested approximately $150M in more than 90 companies.[2][12]

As of 2016, In-Q-Tel listed 325 investments, but more than 100 were kept secret, according to the Washington Post. The absence of disclosure can be due to national security concerns or simply because a startup company doesn’t want its financial ties to intelligence publicized.[7]

Governance

In-Q-Tel is a Virginia-registered corporation,[13] 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 and relationships between In-Q-Tel and government intelligence organizations.[14] 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 investment. 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.[7]

In-Q-Tel's current president and CEO is Christopher A. R. Darby.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "A new partnership between the CIA and the private sector". Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "In-Q-Tel, Inc. Company Information". Hoover's. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Contact Us". Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  4. ↑ "Executive Team". Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Powers, Shawn M; Jablonski, Michael (April 2015). The Real Cyber War. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. pp. 63–69. ISBN 978-0-252-09710-2.
  6. ↑ Yannuzzi, Rick E. (2000). "In-Q-Tel: A new partnership between the CIA and the private sector". Central Intelligence Agency. ISSN 1061-6845. Archived from the original on March 7, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 Paletta, Damian (2016-08-30). "The CIA's Venture-Capital Firm, Like Its Sponsor, Operates in the Shadows". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 31 August 2016. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  8. ↑ "Technology Focus". In-Q-Tel. Archived from the original on 30 May 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014. IQT is focused on new and emerging commercial technologies that have the potential to give the CIA and broader U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) mission-advantage today and in the future. As a strategic partner, we work with the IC ...
  9. ↑ George Tenet (1997), At The Center Of The Storm: My Years at the CIA, Harper Press, p. 26
  10. ↑ "CIA sells Google shares". November 15, 2005. Archived from the original on December 17, 2009.
  11. ↑ "Former Google exec sheds light on KC startups, Kansas tech scene". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  12. ↑ In-Q-Tel website: Investing in our National Security. Archived 2012-11-06 at the Wayback Machine Obtained August 2006.
  13. ↑ "In-Q-Tel Bloomberg Company Overview". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  14. ↑ "In-Q-Tel: A New Partnership Between the CIA and the Private Sector". Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  15. ↑ "In-Q-Tel – About Team". Archived from the original on 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
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