Jun. 3–Two years after first exploring opportunities in the Sacramento region, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm has made its initial investment from its local office, cutting a dealwith a Chico startup.
DFJ Frontier said Monday it is investing in Digital Path Networks, a provider of wireless Internet service. DFJ is an affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvetson of Redwood City.
Scott Lenet, managing director of the Sacramento outpost, declined to disclose the amount invested. But he said it’s in the range of what the firm believes a typical investment will run between $100,000 and $500,000, according to DFJ’s Web site.
The venture capital was a long time in coming. Draper Fisher first revealed its interest in a Sacramento office in May 2001. But it took the firm 18 months to obtain funding, in the form of a $20 million infusion from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The funds are split between DFJ offices in Sacramento and Santa Barbara. The Sacramento office opened late last year.
The CalPERS money is part of a $475 million program designed to bring more venture capital to areas outside Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Another Sacramento-area venture firm, American River Ventures of Roseville, received $10 million.
Lenet said Digital Path is a promising company that’s already serving a small group of residential and business office customers in the Chico area. “Sometime soon the service will be available in the Sacramento area,” he said.
He said DFJ believes there are plenty of investment opportunities in the immediate Sacramento area. He called the region an “epicenter of a terrific amount” of entrepreneurial activity.
—–
To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com
(c) 2003, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
