Plenty of venture and angel deals have turned sour in recent months, which is testing the fortitude of even the heartiest investors. But despite the uncertainties, several entrepreneurial ventures hold tremendous potential for growth. So the Business Journal asked some veteran local venture capitalists the following question: If you could only invest in one L.A.-area company, the one with the best chance of emerging as the Amgen or Microsoft of tomorrow, which company would it be?
David Cremin
Partner
Zone Ventures
Well, 3GA because, if you look what happened for (Silicon-Valley based software company) Parametric Technologies in the ’90s, 3GA is the next generation. Intel has dubbed them the great evolutionary technology. And the reason I bring it up is Parametric was a 1,000-time win for its early investors, and we see 3GA having the same capacity.
James Montgomery
Chief Executive
Digital Coast Ventures
Azuma Wireless is a company that provides supply-chain management software to wireless infrastructure companies, which gives (wireless companies) greater visibility and management tools. It’s basically a hosted software platform for the entire wireless industry. They’re based here in Santa Monica. There is a major business opportunity there, and they’re solving a big problem.
Jonathan Funk
Managing Director
Allegis Capital
BizRate is someone we have very high hopes for. It has the potential to revolutionize the way consumers and merchants interact on the Web, and it’s a resource for everybody who shops on the Internet.
Paul Nadel
Managing Partner
East West
Venture Group
I believe Internap has the potential to be a dominant company based on the fact that its technology solves an ever-present problem on the Internet and can provide maximum performance and reliability. What these guys do is they intelligently route data over the Internet’s major backbones. Think of them as a traffic cop that tells you the most direct path over the public infrastructure. They solve a problem that truly every commercial and enterprise user of the Internet is currently dealing with, and will always deal with. I think they will continue to grow, and they clearly have the ability to become a major player in the world of infrastructure.
Casey Horton
Partner
Ventana Global Ltd.
It’s an obvious answer, but the one that comes to mind first is Broadcom (a developer of integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband digital transmission of voice, video and data). They’re probably closer to achieving that status than most anyone in the Southland. They have one of the largest market caps of any of the Southern California tech companies and they’re in a high-growth sector of the economy. They’re management team is passionate and they’ve shown their ability to execute.
Alex Suh
Managing Director
California Technology Ventures LLC
I would say SupplyEdge. They deal with supply chain in the electronic components industry. Their technology and software allows companies to significantly reduce any downtime in production. The bottom line is that their technology and their system can be utilized by other industries besides the electronic parts industry, thus it’s beyond a niche play. It saves and makes companies money.
Rick Smith
General Partner
Palomar Ventures
We recently invested in a company called Innovics that was spun out of UCLA. They’re making a chip that will enable very high data transmission rates in “third generation” (following analog and digital) technology. It’s early this past December it was only a professor and a plan. We’re in the process now of building the management team around him and the concept. We think this chip that we’re working on will be a critical component, the missing link, to truly enable high-speed transmission of data in 3G.
Brad Jones
Managing Director
Redpoint Venture Capital
Sabeus Photonics, formerly D-Star Technology. They have proprietary, patented technology for creating unique optical components. Initial products include gain-flattening filters and pump laser stabilizers. Both of these products are needed in optical amplifiers, which in turn are needed in optical networks to recreate and amplify optical signals. This is a very fast growing market, as optical networks replace electrical networks, both in the backbone and now in municipal areas and eventually to the home. The management team consists of experienced business people and a top team of physicists from USC.