More than two decades ago, Intellectual Ventures was founded on the certainty that ideas have value. Since then, we’ve created a global business that creates, incubates, and commercializes impactful inventions—all while holding fast to the core belief that we can change the world through the power of invention.
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Evolv going public illustrates one of the driving principles behind IV: that ideas have value. We bring together top inventors, academics, and industry visionaries to formulate ideas, patent technologies, incubate teams, and spin out companies. What started as IV’s third spinout, and the second company to spin out from its portfolio of metamaterials, has grown into a leader in human security—an organization delivering on its mission to making the world a safer place.
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Lumotive is developing metamaterials LiDAR technology that stands to greatly lower the cost of self-driving vehicles. Purposeful uses revolutionary software to help charitable organizations and NGOs ensure that their payments go to the intended recipients. EarthNow seeks to develop a satellite network to gather real-time video from orbit, while Carillon Technologies applies metamaterials technologies to aid national security and government services.
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With the belief that metamaterials could make the impossible a reality, ISF teams up with Dr. David Smith and Duke University to accelerate its commercialization of this breakthrough technology. Their first project, a flat-panel antenna that could bring connectivity to every corner of the planet, resulted in the launch of Kymeta. The team quickly followed with three more metamaterials-based spinout companies—Evolv, Echodyne, and Pivotal Commware—and an industry was born.
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In this animation, a thin diffractive lens focuses a divergent wave created by a small driver and achieves a nearly perfect focus on the other side of it.
For nearly a decade, Global Good created numerous inventions and innovations to transport vaccines, boost farm productivity, diagnose malaria and cervical cancer, and improve life in low-resource settings.
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More recently, Photonic Sentry is working on numerous applications for Photonic Fence. After years of research and development, Photonic Fence aims to disrupt response to, and the monitoring of, harmful insect incursions across numerous industries.
View WebsiteOutfitted to bridge the gap between early-state ideas and proof-of-concept demonstrations, IV Lab is the physical manifestation of the invention culture that thrives at Intellectual Ventures. With a broad array of technical capabilities under one very large roof—not to mention the Cooking Lab and a dynamic instrument fabrication shop—the IV Lab is where invention flourishes.
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TerraPower has been leading the charge in development of cutting-edge nuclear energy technologies that offer scalable, sustainable, safe, and cost-competitive energy options. Through the development of the Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR) program and Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFR) project, TerraPower is setting new standards in the development of advanced nuclear energy systems.
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The Institute for Disease Modeling’s (IDM) mission is to guide global efforts toward the eradication and control of infectious disease through the use and promotion of quantitative analysis. IDM has worked on disease transmission dynamics for COVID-19, malaria, polio, tuberculosis, HIV, pneumonia, typhoid, and more. In 2020, IDM transitioned to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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In 2015, Lowell Wood, inventor in residence, surpassed Thomas Edison's record with the granting of his 1,085th patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Lowell has been a staple since the first Invention Session, and he works alongside 11 of the most prolific U.S. inventors.
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Having recently retired as chief technology officer of Microsoft, Nathan Myhrvold joins with three cofounders—Edward Jung, former chief software architect at Microsoft, Peter Detkin, former chief counsel at Intel, and Greg Gorder, former partner at Perkins Coie—to launch Intellectual Ventures in Bellevue, Washington.
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