Bootstrapped for three years as it developed software, secured a dozen customers and then broke even, HelloSoft Inc. closed its first round of venture capital financing.
Co-led by Sofinnova Ventures and Venrock Associates, the $11 million Series A deal also included Acer Technology Ventures and JumpStart Venture Fund. Eric Buatois, a managing director with Sofinnova, and Eric Copeland, a general partner with Venrock, now sit on the company’s board of directors.
San Jose, Calif.-based HelloSoft develops software for 802.11, Bluetooth, DSL and GSM/GPRS wireless standards and then licenses the software to equipment manufacturers and semiconductor companies. Technology giants like Broadcom, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Intel, LSI Logic and Texas Instruments are already customers, says HelloSoft’s founder, chairman and chief executive Krishna Yarlagadda.
Yarlagadda is also the founder of ZSP, a digital signal processing company acquired by LSI Logic Inc., and CoWave Networks, a still-private wireless broadband company. HelloLogic is a ZSP spinout. Three years ago ZSP’s software developers formed a separate company to build IP-based business, and that group became HelloSoft.
The company will use the capital infusion to expand its marketing and sales efforts. One hundred of the company’s 120 current employees are in India, but its headquarters remain in San Jose. It will add about 10 people over the course of the year, along the East Coast and in Asia and Europe. The company also plans to develop software for new segments of the technology market, though it has not revealed yet which technology platforms it plans to target
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