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Impactinvention

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.

Explore Our Story

2021

EVOLV GOES  PUBLIC

IV’s third spinout company becomes the first to hit Wall Street, debuting on NASDAQ under EVLV. The company, which spun out from the Invention Science Fund in 2013 after completing proof-of-concept work at IV Lab, is transforming the physical security industry by delivering the world’s first AI-enabled touchless screening system on the market.

2018

accelerating  impact

The pace of launching new spinouts continues to accelerate, with several companies exiting Intellectual Ventures in 2017 and 2018 to further commercialization efforts of cutting-edge technologies.

2013

Metamaterials an industry is born

After nearly a decade of research, the Invention Science Fund (ISF) ramps up its commercialization efforts of cutting-edge metamaterials technology following the successful launch of its first metamaterials-based spinout, Kymeta.

2011

a decade in

Ten years after its founding, Intellectual Ventures (IV) has gained 30 strategic partners, generated more than $2 billion in licensing revenue, returned $400 million to individual inventors, and assembled a portfolio of more than 35,000 IP assets. The 1,293 U.S. patents awarded to IV inventors in 2010 rank it #13 among the world’s tech giants, higher than many familiar Fortune 500 companies.

2010

tackling The world's toughest problems

With funding from Bill Gates and focused on a shared vision with Nathan Myhrvold, Global Good was established to invent technologies to address some of humanity's most daunting problems. In 2020, aspects of Global Good, including the Institute for Disease Modeling, were transitioned to integrate and align even more closely with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gates Ventures.

2010

mosquito-killing laser takes center stage

In a memorable presentation at TED2010, founder and CEO Nathan Myhrvold demonstrates the Photonic Fence, which zaps mosquitoes mid-flight with laser blasts.

2009

The Intellectual Ventures Laboratory is born

Intellectual Ventures Laboratory (IV Lab) opens in a former motorcycle service shop. The IV Lab quickly outgrows its facility, and later moves into its current home: a custom-tailored, 87,000-sq. ft. facility that more than 100 scientists and engineers call home.

2008

nuclear reimagined

Our first spinout company, TerraPower, is formed to develop the Traveling Wave Reactor—an advanced design that grew out of a 2006 Invention Session that explored ways to produce clean energy at a global scale.

2007

global impact

The Invention Development Fund—which later spins out as Xinova—launches and will eventually link 10,000 inventors and hundreds of research institutions into a global innovation network. Intellectual Ventures scientists also begin creating highly detailed computer models of malaria, a project that ultimately grows into the Institute for Disease Modeling.

2003

the next
big thing

Intellectual Ventures brings some of the world’s most inventive minds together for its first Invention Session, an intensive, all-day, interdisciplinary brainstorm. Over the next 15 years, invention sessions generate thousands of patented innovations.

2000

Intellectual ventures begins

Rooted in the belief that people should be rewarded for their ideas, Intellectual Ventures is established by Nathan Myhrvold, Edward Jung, Greg Gorder, and Peter Detkin to create a business model for invention.

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