In-Q-Tel

In-Q-Tel is a private, nonprofit corporation that invests money from the CIA and other intelligence agencies in technology companies. It was incorporated in Delaware on February 16, 1999, as Peleus, Inc., began work as In-Q-It, and took its present name in January 2000. It reported its 800th investment in 2025. It does not announce all of its investments, and its tax filings are the principal public record of who runs it.¹²³

Founding

The plan came from Ruth David, the agency's deputy director for science and technology, and her deputy Joanne Isham, and was adopted in 1998 by Director George Tenet. A small team of agency staff, a consulting firm, and the law firm Arnold and Porter spent four months visiting Silicon Valley. Jeffrey Smith, who helped design the company as the CIA's general counsel, became its outside counsel at Arnold and Porter. The first contract came in March 1999 and the charter agreement, modeled on the "other transactions" authority of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was signed that July. The first chairman was Lee Ault, and the first chief executive, announced on September 29, 1999, was Gilman Louie. The CIA stationed thirteen employees in an In-Q-Tel Interface Center to carry the products into the agency.¹⁴

A panel of Business Executives for National Security, required by Congress, reported in June 2001 that the CIA had obligated 62.7 million dollars to the company through March of that year, that it had reviewed more than 750 business plans and funded 23, and that one of its first deliveries was an electronic briefing system used for the president-elect during the 2000 transition.⁴

Michael Griffin was the company's president and chief operating officer from August 5, 2002, to April 2004, and afterward administrator of NASA, which in October 2006 announced a venture fund of its own, Red Planet Capital. The Army had created one, OnPoint Technologies, in 2003. The Office of Management and Budget ended funding for such funds in 2007. The guidance did not apply to In-Q-Tel. Amit Yoran succeeded Louie in January 2006 and resigned after four months. Christopher Darby was chief executive from September 2006 to September 2023, when Steve Bowsher replaced him. Darby was paid 4,957,127 dollars in his last year.³⁵

Clients

The National Imagery and Mapping Agency became a limited partner in the summer of 2002. The company lists the FBI as a partner from 2004, the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2005, the Transportation Security Administration from 2008, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Security Agency from 2009, the Department of Homeland Security from 2010, Cyber Command from 2019, and the Space Force from 2024. It opened offices in London in 2018, Sydney in 2019, and Singapore and Munich in 2023.²

Keyhole

In February 2003 In-Q-Tel invested in Keyhole, Inc., a maker of satellite-image mapping software, in its first transaction on behalf of the mapping agency. Within two weeks the agency was using the software in the Pentagon to support the invasion of Iraq. Google bought Keyhole in 2004 and made it Google Earth. In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google in 2005 for 2.18 million dollars. Rob Painter, an In-Q-Tel executive, went to Google to run its federal sales. When the writer Yasha Levine asked the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act for the terms of the transaction, the agency replied that it could neither confirm nor deny the existence of records. The company's other early holdings included Palantir Technologies.⁶⁷

Trustees

The Wall Street Journal reported on August 30, 2016, that nearly half of In-Q-Tel's trustees had a financial connection to a company it had funded, that it had funded companies linked to a trustee on at least 17 occasions, and that of about 325 investments since its founding more than 100 had never been announced. General Charles Boyd, a trustee, recommended the virtual-reality company Forterra Systems, on whose board he also sat. In-Q-Tel invested in 2007, and Forterra failed in 2010. Peter Barris of New Enterprise Associates was a trustee when In-Q-Tel invested in Cleversafe, in which his firm held a stake. When Cleversafe was sold for 1.3 billion dollars in 2015 he sat on its board, on In-Q-Tel's, and on that of a third investor, Northwestern University. Anita Jones, a trustee since 2002, was a director of the drone maker CyPhy Works when In-Q-Tel funded it. Darby was at the same time chairman of the cybersecurity firm Endgame, with the CIA's approval. The company was then spending at least 120 million dollars a year. Smith told the newspaper: "You want a board who knows what the hell they are doing."⁸

The company's returns to the Internal Revenue Service for the fiscal years 2017 to 2025 list as paid trustees George Tenet, at 35,000 dollars a year; Smith, who remained its outside counsel; Admiral Mike Mullen; Jami Miscik, a former CIA deputy director for intelligence; Ted Schlein of Kleiner Perkins; Howard Cox of Greylock Partners; James Barksdale; and the chairman, Michael Crow. A.B. Krongard, the agency's executive director from 2001 to 2004, appears as a trustee in 2018. Stephanie O'Sullivan, who as the CIA's director of science and technology took part in hiring Darby in 2006, became a trustee in 2023. The filings for 2018 to 2025 also list David McCormick, William Hurd, Ben Sasse, and Safra Catz. Net assets rose from 99.9 million dollars in 2011 to 930 million in 2025.³

Unannounced Investments

A 2021 filing recorded 1.6 million dollars paid to a vendor identified as "W I." at the San Francisco address of the encrypted messaging company Wickr, which does not appear in the company's published portfolio. Louie was co-chairman of Wickr's board and an investor in it. Amazon bought Wickr in June 2021. A company spokeswoman said: "There will always be companies that are not announced publicly." She named its clients as "the CIA, FBI, NSA, NGA, NRO, DHS (specifically Customs and Border Protection), DIA, and Air Force."⁹

In 2016 The Intercept reported an investment in Skincential Sciences, the maker of the Clearista line of skin-care products. The company's own material described human skin as "a unique, underutilized source for sample collection." "There's no better identifier than DNA, and we know we can pull out DNA," its chief executive said. FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work addressed the portfolio companies at a closed meeting that February. In September 2022 the company took a stake in Colossal Biosciences, founded by George Church to revive the woolly mammoth, writing that "it's less about the mammoths and more about the capability."¹⁰¹¹

Oversight

Politico reported on March 23, 2026, citing six people, that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was completing a plan to move oversight of In-Q-Tel from the CIA to her own office. Her spokeswoman said "the entire story is false." Gabbard resigned in May 2026. No transfer has been announced.¹²