Nearly four years after Intel said it planned to ‘wind down’ its RealSense computer vision business, the division has completed its spinout from the semiconductor giant with funding raised from investors to chase big opportunities in robotics and biometrics.
Nearly four years ago, Intel said it planned to “wind down” its RealSense computer vision business. But while the business pruned a few product lines, it never fully closed.
Instead, RealSense continued to invest in its line of depth-sensing cameras, including the underlying chips and software. Then on Friday, the business said it completed its spinout from Intel with $50 million in funding raised from investors, including Intel Capital and MediaTek Innovation Fund, to chase big opportunities in robotics and biometrics.
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In an interview with CRN, RealSense CEO Nadav Orbach, who was at Intel for more than 19 years, admitted that “there was an internal discussion” about the semiconductor giant winding down his business in the second half of 2021 to focus on its core businesses and then-CEO Pat Gelsinger’s IDM 2.0 strategy as CRN reported at the time.
But while the business ended up discontinuing its LiDAR, facial authentication and tracking product lines, Orbach said Gelsinger recognized the value of keeping RealSense.
“The reason that Pat kept it at the end is he believed that it’s an asset that will help him play in some areas” like AI, he said.
For the next few years, Intel continued to hold onto RealSense—which said it gained “proven industry traction” across robotics, industrial automation, security and other areas—even as the chipmaker exited several other businesses during Gelsinger’s tenure.
During that time, RealSense “heavily invested” in its portfolio, including a new ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) that brings AI computing power to the RealSense depth cameras, according to Orbach.
Then in January, the company confirmed to The Robot Report that it planned to spin out RealSense by the first half of this year to focus on its core businesses. This happened a little more than a month after Intel’s board reportedly forced Gelsinger to leave and two months before Lip-Bu Tan was named as Intel’s new CEO.
“We’re very much alive and kicking,” said Orbach (pictured above).
Now with funding from investors, including an undisclosed RealSense customer, the now-startup plans to expand into adjacent and emerging markets, including humanoid robotics and autonomous mobile robotics. It also expects to scale manufacturing, grow its go-to-market efforts and hire more engineers specializing in AI, software and robotics.
Robotics, in particular, is an area where RealSense sees a lot of potential for growth, with the company saying that the market is projected to quadruple to more than $200 billion within six years. It also sees sustained demand for facial biometrics, which “are becoming increasingly accepted in everyday applications, from airport screening to event entry.”
“We understood that we have to invest in a few areas in order to continue to be relevant and to be an essential ingredient in robotics,” Orbach said. “Obviously, a dense 3-D map in real time [with a] high frame rate, very accurate, is very relevant to all those robotic segments.”
RealSense has 130 employees between locations in the United States, Israel and China.
