• Expansion stage companies that are largely past product or technology development risk and can demonstrate some level of actual market validation.
• Early stage companies with exceptional technology or other proprietary advantages that are poised to capitalize on major market trends.
• Later stage middle market buyout opportunities that are attractively priced and offer upside growth potential through strategy modification and management rejuvenation.

Our target investment size is $2 - $10 million with additional funds reserved for follow-on rounds. We have an investment capacity of up to $50 million per company.

Investment Focus Areas

We target the following four investment focus areas that we believe offer attractive upside potential and where we have substantial investment experience and market expertise.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) – ICT encompasses areas that are being transformed by the convergence of high-performance computing, global high-speed telecommunications, and advanced sensing and data analysis. Some example investment areas within ICT are as follows:

• Network hardware and software
• Wireless communications
• Distributed computing and interoperable web-based services
• Rich media creation and distribution infrastructure

Life Sciences – We focus on areas within life sciences that can capitalize on major market demographic trends, have relatively lower go-to-market hurdles, and possess multiple, large, active strategic buyers. Some example investment areas are as follows:

• Medical devices for therapeutic uses
• Novel diagnostics and imaging
• Specialty pharmaceuticals
• Drug delivery

Services – We look for service businesses that are well positioned to capitalize on outsourcing trends and efficiencies being created by rapid advances in IT and telecommunications technologies. Example investment areas are as follows:

• Financial services
• Health care services
• Information technology services
• Medical services

Defense and Security – We target investments that are poised to capitalize on long-term growth trends in the defense and security arenas. Some example investment areas are as follows:

• Surveillance and monitoring
• Flexible, rapid deployment communications technologies for military and emergency situations
• Software for operationally intensive environments
• Data archiving, search, and retrieval

We are willing to consider investments outside these four focus areas on a limited basis. However, they must offer an exceptionally compelling investment thesis.

What We Look For In A Company

A Large Market Opportunity
We look for companies with a market opportunity that is large enough to provide ample room for growth over several years. In addition, we are particularly attracted to companies that have positioned their products or services to capitalize on major structural changes within their target markets.

A Clear Sustainable Competitive Advantage
A company must be able to articulate a simple, clear business plan that explains why it will be a winner and how it can sustain a winning position over an extended period of time. We look for sources of competitive advantage based on unique market position, a novel competitive strategy, specialized expertise, patents, trade secrets, or similar.

Stellar Management
We believe strongly that even a great idea has little value unless there is a great management team to turn it into reality. We look for experienced management that has domain expertise in the company’s business area, a track record of prior success, and the drive and passion needed to overcome the many inevitable obstacles on the road to success.

An Attractive Financial Model
We expect a company’s management to provide an attractive but realistic financial model that shows how it will make money, how much capital it will need, and how value will be created for investors. We look for businesses that can deliver strong margins, have low to medium capital intensity, and a high degree of financial and operational scalability.

High Exit Potential
In evaluating any investment, we carefully consider the available avenues for the company to achieve a successful exit. We are attracted to investment areas where strong valuations exist for comparable public and private companies. We also look at the history of M&A activity in the specific investment area and the number and quality of potential acquirers. Finally, we also prefer to see that a company is addressing a large enough market opportunity to make a future IPO a meaningful possibility.