Early Stage Investment Fund
Portfolio
Thesis
IoT
There will be trillions (with a T) of devices/sensors deployed globally.
What will they power? How would they be secured, connected, exploited, managed?
Consumer devices are ahead of the curve here however large enterprises, governments and healthcare providers are particularly behind in regards to deploying and exploiting connectivity.
Smart Everything
Global real-estate portfolios are valued over $200 trillion dollars.
Smart Cities, buildings, homes are coming but this market has only started to appear. How would one build, secure, and maintain smart cities?
Large enterprises are only now discovering the efficiencies of connected infrastructure and we are still far away from “smart infrastructure”. We see this as a big investment opportunity and one of the most promising areas of investment.
Cybersecurity
As connectivity increases security firmly moves from “nice to have” to “must-have” in every product.
However, software and hardware developers are woefully under-prepared. Existing certification regimes attempt to replace actual security with endless checklists and compliance items which often have very little to do with actual data security.
Insurance
One of the greatest promises of IoT is its ability to have nearly constant control of infrastructure.
From a classic insurance perspective, this can be both very good or very bad. Many insurance businesses such as car insurance are likely to experience significant declines as safer alternatives to human-operated vehicles are deployed.
On the other hand, new fields such as cyber insurance, predictive insurance products, and crowd insurance are quickly emerging helped by ubiquitous data sources and advanced analytics. The insurance market will be markedly different and we look forward to playing a part in this transformation.
Team
Dmitry Dain
2000–2003
The developer of first public Wi-Fi, first enterprise Wi-Fi and first airplane Wi-Fi. OEMEd by Apple, HP, Dell and 30 other leading manufacturers. Developer of Lucent Orinoco Wi-Fi Routers (later recognised as “Product Of The Year” by PC Magazine).
2004–2007
Technical Approach Lead for DARPA XG — developed software-defined radios and cognitive radio systems for the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. This project resulted in 7 foundational patents and the creation of the “White Spaces Initiative”, which freed spectrum for LTE networks.
2006 / 2008
Co-founder of Kadoo and DivShare — cloud-based hosting focused firms (Box.net and Dropbox competitors). Dmitry grew the company to 3 million users.
2012–2013
Subject-matter expert for the US Treasury on the topic of cryptocurrency security and the Blockchain.
2014
Adviser to Goldman Sachs on bitcoin and blockchain security.
2014 — to present
Co-founder and CTO of Virgil Security, Inc. — a world leading company focused on helping developers build secure mobile apps and IoT devices.
Michael W. Wellman
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30+ years successfully delivering new technologies and market-defining products.
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Delivered products for AMD, AOL, Apple, Ascend, Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM, Lucent, Microsoft, PSINet, Sony & Sprint.
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AOL’s first Macintosh web-browser.
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Apple’s first 2 generations of Airport.
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Industry’s first outdoor 802.11a Wi-Fi product.
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Industry’s first public space Wi-Fi product.
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Industry’s first secure enterprise Wi-Fi product.
