Communications infrastructure

We believe terrific opportunities can be found in companies developing innovative applications and services within core infrastructure platforms such as SONET and Optical Ethernet as well as in the move to 40Gbps (and higher network speeds). As data volume continues to increase, innovative ways to increase revenue above the transport layer increasingly drive network operators decision making. The convergence of voice, data and video also drives equipment and application changeovers and start up opportunities to challenge incumbent equipment vendors.

Semi-conductors

Fabless chip companies developing value propositions in storage, image processing, multiple protocol support and power consumption are of particular focus for our fund. Market sector emphasis includes network equipment, security, cell phones and application specific memory design scenarios. Also of interest is companies that provide a specific piece of the design, test and verification value chain in an innovative/low cost manner or location.

Wireless

As infrastructure is transformed to allow un-tethered data transfer, the adoption and proliferation of new standards such as 802.11x, 802.16, OFDM, Wi-max, Edge, 1xRtt, 3G etc represent substantial opportunities for start up companies. Equipment providers, content and transaction-based application providers, and companies offering radically new business models for mobile Internet access are of particular interest to us.

Enterprise Software

We believe that a great deal of the enterprise software innovations of the last decade have primarily been associated with such customer facing business units as sales, marketing and product development. Our investment strategy is actively pursuing opportunities that will be extended to long neglected enterprise activities and business units, (e.g. IT), solutions that can be delivered cost effectively to companies both large and small. Innovations using open source platforms in the areas of database scalability, storage, integration and rich client computing are specific areas where we are being proactive in our efforts to identify opportunities.