The Boeing Company has recently made its first investment in a Seattle-based fund. The Aerospace Giant has invested $5 million in Alexander Hutton Venture Partners, a venture capital fund focused on technology companies in the Seattle area.
The investment apparently is part of Boeing’s strategy to expand its R&D and innovation capabilities by participating in leading venture capital funds around the world that specialize in developing technologies of interest to the company.Over the past two years, Boeing has invested in a number of venture capital funds in the U.S. as well as in the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, Russia and Switzerland.
Through its investment in the Alexander Hutton Venture Partners fund, Boeing will have access to innovative technologies in such areas as Internet infrastructure, streaming media, business-to-business e-commerce, telecommunications and data networking software.
Considering that Boeing has recently has made many strides into the Internet and mobile technology space, the fund’s Internet focus comes as no surprise.
In fact, just last week, seattle.internet.com reported that Boeing’s advanced research and development unit Phantom Works teamed up with Seattle-based Topia Ventures to create a customized working demonstration of the Topia mobile agent computing technology. This recent mobile agent technology gives users the ability to securely manage personal data, access data from multiple devices, work across multiple platforms, collaborate in real-time, and delegate tasks to the personal agent.
According to Miller Adams, director of technology planning and acquisition for Boeing Phantom Works,
the investment represents Boeing’s commitment to invest in the Northwest region, where a great deal of excellent technology work is being done that can be used to streamline Boeing’s business processes.
“We are very pleased to have Boeing join us as a limited partner,” says Kent Johnson, Alexander Hutton Venture Partners’ managing director. “Boeing’s participation extends our network to help uncover new investment opportunities for the fund, and it gives our portfolio companies an opportunity to showcase their technologies to one of the nation’s largest and most innovative companies.”
