Strategy

enVia is focused on developing investments in seed and early stage companies in portable information technology and supporting infrastructure with a focus on wireless, software, human interfaces, services and content . Portable information technology refers to the convergence of personal communications, data, entertainment and processing with the mobile information society. This segment includes cellular, wireless, organizers, wireless email, digital cameras, portable games, portable digital music and pocket video, and the myriad of variations and combinations thereof.

enVia follows a unique strategy that combines the classic entrepreneur ethic with a venture investment discipline. This model : 

• Employs active involvement by the enVia team in key line management roles in early stages of investments.

• Generates a unique deal flow by a process of extrapolating technology and market evolution trends to identify roadblocks and bottlenecks facing the industry. enVia team members continuously update and validate the trends within industry standards bodies and associations.

• Requires early market validation with key potential customers.

Once a bottleneck has been identified as an opportunity area, the team begins to build and execute a plan to exploit and monetize the opportunity. enVia first seeks to capture a defensible or disruptive product/technology. This is done through internal development, licensing, or appropriate teaming arrangements. enVia will independently seek new technologies and products and will begin intellectual property searches and defenses. enVia also seeks entrepreneurs and teams with relevant experience in opportunity areas. enVia, in general, does not pursue segments already significantly overpopulated or easily entered by existing industry players.

Disruptive Threads

The information industry is engaged in a long-term process of moving information tools closer to people. This trend accelerated during the last half of the twentieth century. At each step in this process, the size of the market grew by an order of magnitude. Each step involved a transition period where start-up companies introduced disruptive products generating dramatic wealth creation. First came the development of mainframe computers with sales volumes in the order of 1 million units per year, followed by mini computers in the order of 10 million per year, PCs with volumes in the 100 million units per year range, and now personal portable devices. The final form that these personal portable devices will take is not yet clear (part of the opportunity for disruption), but it appears likely that they will evolve from cell phones. In 2004, 645 million cell phones were sold. The historical trend tells us that the annual market for these devices, when the market is mature, will be in the billion unit range, suggesting that we are only half way through the process.

Through this process, a pattern of disruption within each step has emerged. Disruptive waves in each step pass through industry segments, creating new more profitable business models and leaving the old business models behind. At the same time, disruption in the previous segment enables the disruption in the next industry segment. Waves start with hardware, move on to software, then to systems, services, and finally to content. Profitability is generally highest in content and decreases in each segment through to hardware. Thus, it is possible to participate in the disruptive, more profitable business models in each segment as the wave passes through. One could make the case that to maximize return, one should wait for the disruptive wave in content. Interdependencies, however, counter that argument. Later stage opportunities only become apparent by participating in earlier stage industry development