Motorola Solutions Venture Capital Expands Portfolio

Motorola Solutions, a leading provider of mission-critical communication products and services for enterprise and government customers, through its strategic investment arm Motorola (News - Alert) Solutions Venture Capital (formerly Motorola Ventures), expects to gain a competitive advantage by cultivating new technology innovation. The venture capital group currently manages 20 portfolio companies and plans to invest in 5-6 more start-up companies in 2011.

“Investing in start-up companies is an important part of Motorola Solutions’ innovation strategy,” Michael Annes, corporate VP of business development and ventures at Motorola Solutions, said in a statement. “This year, our venture capital team is hitting the ground running with a portfolio of 20 start-ups and 10 venture funds and expects to invest in an additional five to six companies. We look forward to funding companies that complement the customer-focused innovation that is going on at Motorola Solutions.”

Motorola Solutions Venture Capital has a solid track record of assisting start-up companies while gaining access and visibility to innovative solutions in new markets. The group’s investment priorities for 2011 focus on technologies that support the company’s public safety and enterprise mobility businesses, such as mobile computing, cloud computing, video and video analytics, retail experiences and analytics, RFID-enabled solutions and security.

Motorola Solutions Venture Capital recently invested in ViVOtech Inc, the near-field communication (NFC) software and systems company. ViVOtech enables enriched mobile commerce solutions for in-store payment, loyalty, marketing and merchandising. Merchants as well as payment, mobile, web and advertising companies use ViVOtech’s solutions to enhance customer experience and grow their businesses.

The Motorola Solutions Venture Capital investment is expected to help support and accelerate the development and deployment of ViVOtech’s NFC mobile commerce solutions and provide the key building blocks of the NFC ecosystem worldwide.

In a related development, Motorola Solutions and Verizon Wireless (News - Alert) entered into a partnership to bring all the advantages of an advanced wireless communication solution to public safety customers across the United States.