SAP and Intel invest $15 million in Endeca

Endeca Technologies announced Wednesday it landed a $15 million investment from industry titans Intel and SAP, signaling yet another sign that enterprise search is gaining serious traction.

That investment appears a bargain, compared to the price Microsoft is paying for search company Fast Search & Transfer. Earlier this month, the software giant announced it would acquire Fast Search & Transfer in a deal valued at $1.2 billion, according to a report in the New York Times.

For Endeca, this $15 million investment adds to the more than $50 million the company has raised to date. Back in 2001, for example, Endeca raised a $15 million second round of funding from Ampersand Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Venrock Associates.

In this latest funding round, Intel alone is kicking in $10 million, the chip giant said. That leaves SAP with the remaining $5 million tab. And, of course, these corporate titans are looking to get something out of their investment.

Intel, for example, wants to ensure its next generation multicore chips will play a role in the crucial search market.

"Information access platforms play a crucial role in linking vast collections of data," Arvind Sodhani, Intel Capital president, said in a statement. "Endeca will further their capabilities by capitalizing on Intel's next generation multicore platforms in this market segment."

SAP, meanwhile, is hoping the Endeca investment stake will lead to customers gaining greater visibility into their enterprise-wide assets, Jennifer Scholze, an SAP Ventures investment partner, noted in a statement.