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iSherpa Capital LLC
9100 E. Panorama Dr.
Ste 350
Englewood,  Colorado   80112
phone: 303-696-9119
fax: 303-696-1047
email: lbednarz@isherpa.net
 

iSherpa Capital, LLC, is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused exclusively on wireless and supporting technologies. Located in Denver, Colorado, iSherpa Capital combines traditional venture capital with a hands-on, collaborative approach that focuses on building sustainable operating companies. The experienced iSherpa Capital leadership team has over 40 years of extensive management and investment expertise.

iSherpa Capital views wireless as the impact technology that will drive new facets of communication in the 21st Century. "Remember a few years ago when people asked whether mobile phones will take off, because you can get what you want from land-based phones? Now you can't handle your life without one. It will be the same for other forms of wireless," said Maria Khorsand, Ericcson Technology Licensing President. The future of wireless technology will give rise to innovative people-to-people communications and machine-to-machine interactions, and will leverage mobility within many sectors. Billion dollar opportunities with disruptive technologies exist all along the wireless value chain, from communications technology to infrastructure enablers.

iSherpa Capital was founded in March 2000 and is self-funded by its partners. The firm's average investments are $1 million seed and $2 million per selected follow-on investment.

Principals:

iSherpa Capital is lead by three managing partners, Peter Mannetti, Vipanj Patel and Gary Rohr. Mr. Mannetti joined iSherpa in 2001, after co-founding and building Qwest Wireless into a $1 billion company with over 1 million subscribers. Mr. Mannetti, as the Chief Executive Officer of Qwest Wireless, won national and international awards for his leadership in developing innovative wireless products. He also held senior management positions at Bell South Mobile Data and General Electric.

Mr. Patel has closed over 40 technology financings worth over $2 billion at Morris, Manning & Martin, the premier law firm in the Southeast. Mr. Patel's expertise lies in working with entrepreneurs in structuring their companies, developing their business strategies and obtaining financing. He works with companies developing disruptive technologies, and at times takes on an active operational role to help drive value proposition definition, market size assessment, revenue model formulation, and partner customer relationships.

Mr. Rohr has over ten years of executive management experience, co-founding a company with over $100 million in revenues and 1,500 employees. Mr. Rohr has acted as the General Partner in numerous Limited Partnerships, managing over $300 million in assets. He provides expertise to early stage companies in all areas of management, including operations, finance and executive recruiting.

Portfolio Companies:

TensorComm - a Denver-based intellectual property development and commercialization firm focused on spectrum enhancement technologies. TensorComm dramatically enhances wireless voice and data communications systems. Leveraging TensorComm's technology, wireless carriers can greatly expand network capacity, coverage area, and data rate, while significantly decreasing infrastructure costs and spectrum purchases.

Digital Reliance - a Denver-based firm with an application to enable business organizations to manage wireless assets by instantly optimizing calling plans, automating cost allocation, and transferring billing data into an easy-to-use online management tool.

Isovia - Headquartered in Boston, Isovia offers a suite of solutions that mobilize enterprise applications and data from industry-leading supply-chain, customer relationship, and ERP packages as well as legacy systems. At the end of 2001, Isovia was purchased by JP Mobile, a leading mobile software company.

Authentor Systems, Inc. - develops and markets Web access management and authentication systems that enable companies to cost-effectively provide secure access to online information and applications. The company's flagship product, SmartPath(tm), is a combination of hardware, software and a proprietary behavior-profiling engine that integrates access control and authorization with authentication.

Silicongo - Headquartered in New York City, Silicongo provides a software platform that delivers associative intelligence when accessing, using, developing and integrating data applications. While providing a comprehensive tool for all environments, Silicongo offers particular advantages in wireless and other constrained environments.