Rather than try to transplant the enterprise venture culture to their home markets, Japanese and European countries beyond the UK, which does have its own fitful venture capital infrastructure, find it easier simply to add to the amount of start-up cash available in Silicon Valley and hope to benefit by part-ownership of the companies funded, by choosing ones operating in fields of particular to them in the future. Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA pioneered this route from Europe, and now NEC Corp has followed suit, teaming up with Sumitomo Bank to form Convergence Partners – reflecting convergence of industries, technologies and world markets – in Menlo Park. Convergence Ventures I is structured as a limited partnership with $60m available for investment. Helping out on the stock-picking side are Silicon Valley investment professionals Paul Dali, Eric Di Benedetto and Russ Irwin, who will supply experience in technology, marketing, money management, and international finance to the management of investments and the provision of strategic counsel to high-technology entrepreneurial ventures. The new fund will look overseas for prospects, but only with a view to attracting entrepreneurs from other countries to Silicon Valley where funding and counsel is more readily available.
