CONVERGENCE, NeoSilicon, same Bluetooth-venturecapitalist
CONVERGENCE
CEO: James Harkins
Founded: 1997 Employees: 15
Norcross, Georgia 770/849-9950 www.cvcorp.com
Recently funded Startups that have received seed funding in the last six months By Red Herring.
MARKET Develops software for connecting wireless smart devices to each other via the Internet and corporate networks. In April 1998 launched first product, TeleBrowser, which provides notification and remote-query capabilities to communications devices and runs on NT server software. Users can monitor corporate data like sales, inventory levels, and production capacity and specify conditions to allow orders to be processed automatically. Currently developing embedded-system software for the new Bluetooth short-range (10 to 100 meters) wireless radio specifications for mobile devices. Formulated by IBM, Toshiba, Intel, Nokia, and Ericsson, the Bluetooth specifications are designed for low-powered radio frequency modules of chips that use a globally available unlicensed frequency (2.4 GHz). Expects to ship Bluetooth-based software in the second half of 1999. Is currently negotiating first partnership agreements. Customers include Ericsson, GTE, LG, Lucent Technologies, and Panasonic. Competes with Phoenix Technologies and Smartcode Software.
FINANCE Profitable. Revenues for 1997 were more than $500,000. Raised seed funding of $715,000 in September 1998 from Venture Investment Management. Expects to raise another round this year. CEO cofounded the company and was previously director of sales at SystemSoft.
By Lawrence Aragon, Editor Redherring.com, December 11, 1999
(Excerpts:)
Does Bluetooth have bite? Will Norwest Venture Partners sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA)? When should you run a background check on your venture capitalist? Promod Haque tackles these questions and more as he once again plays the role of The Smart VC. The first half of Mr. Haque's interview ran on Tuesday. You liked it so much that you fired off more questions over email, which the Norwest general partner was happy to answer in a follow-up phone interview Thursday.
....
LONG IN THE BLUETOOTH
Q. OK, here's a question about the Bluetooth standard. This person wants to know what you think about it and whether it's going to take off. [Bluetooth is a short-range wireless standard that would allow a bunch of mobile devices to talk to each other as well as to regular phones and desktop computers -- even when users wander around an office full of walls. The first Bluetooth products are expected to ship early next year.]
A. I think it's going to be huge, because you're playing in a consumer market -- personal digital assistants, cell phones, car phones. Opportunities will emerge for specific products that use the Bluetooth standard, and for Bluetooth-enabling chips that go into the devices. But these chips have to be very cheap, very small, and produced at a very low cost. Today, it's very expensive, because you have to use bipolar/BiCMOS semiconductor processes. If you're going to get into a mass market, you really need to get into vanilla CMOS. The bulk of the digital circuits used in the industry today are traditional CMOS.
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