We invest in consumer-facing technology businesses that need capital to expand.

What We Look For

We fund companies that are best positioned to leverage our infrastructure, experience, and expertise to become world-class market leaders.

Likewise, if we can create synergies between a potential investment and companies in our portfolio, the investment becomes even more appealing; both companies stand to benefit through faster growth and economies of infrastructure — creating a real win-win.

But we also realize that not all compelling investment opportunities are “game changers”. A business with an innovative product or service and real potential to shift a market — with near-term profitability likely — is just as attractive.

What We Offer

We bring 50 years’ experience in technology, sales, financing, and marketing to our investments. Here are just some areas where we can add distinctive value:

Technology & IP

We’ve built a number of leading-edge technologies that power our innovations — among them an open-architecture M2M communication platform, a robust eCommerce engine, and a scalable social media platform. And, to realize new ideas, we have access to world-class technology development resources.

Connections

With a decades-long heritage of industry participation, we’ve developed enduring relationships with some of the world’s leading software and hardware firms. We can introduce our portfolio companies to potentially valuable partners.

Technical Support & Customer Service

With technology-driven CRM, our post-sales solutions turn satisfied customers into loyal brand believers.

Sales-Channel Development

We help companies establish and support sales channel segmentation and management — and increase market penetration.

Marketing, Branding, Advertising & Merchandising

We help businesses form durable customer relationships by blending brand strategy with marketing execution.

Geographic Focus

We don’t have a particular geographic focus. We invest globally in promising companies.

Sectors

We invest primarily in consumer-facing hardware, digital media, and software. We have the most direct experience here, and our team can deliver the most added value.

Investment Structures

We can function as a lead investor or even as the sole investor. We are equally comfortable in passive roles, such as minority shareholders. Or, as in the case of a straight financing option, we need not take any role at all.

Here are our most common vehicles, but we can also craft custom solutions for businesses with unique capital needs.

Financing

We provide bridge loans or longer-term loans to finance R&D, broaden technology, scale service delivery or expand production, enter new markets, or manage any unexpected obstacles or strategic undertakings.

Equity Participation

We provide passive equity investments to companies that meet our risk-assessment criteria, maintaining a distance from day-to-day operations. But as skilled and experienced investors, we can help our portfolio companies build even stronger businesses by drawing on our financial and strategic expertise, industry relationships, and significant resources.

Strategic Investment

As a primary or sole investor, we work closely with a company’s executives — to overcome challenges, explore new avenues, implement fresh strategies, and re-energize thinking. We can also keep an eye on management teams in their day-to-day operations, serving as active board members and experienced advisors to help build category-leading businesses.

Acquisition

We’re constantly assessing potential acquisitions that complement our portfolio across varied business sectors.

Preferred Stage of Investment

We direct our investments at companies poised for growth — businesses that stand to realize significant gains through our investment and assistance. Typically, these are companies having established business models with avenues of growth requiring capital. For exceptional opportunities, however, we may consider funding companies at earlier stages — if an investment of capital, enhanced by our infrastructure and expertise, is likely to rapidly produce results.

We are also open to syndication arrangements with other investors, such as venture-capital firms, as a value-added co-investor. And we can continue to support our portfolio companies with later-stage investments.

Investment Size

We expect the average investment will be in the range between $500,000 and $10 million. As capital needs change, we may make additional funding available for our portfolio companies.