JAPANESE FIRM SUNBRIDGE ENTERS PALO ALTO

While many Silicon Valley-based venture capitalists are headed to Asia, the reverse direction is happening at SunBridge Corporation, a Tokyo-based venture firm that has formed a VC affiliate in Palo Alto, SunBridge Partners Inc., with three US-side partners.  The firm will mine cross-border Japan-US investments and relationships, focusing in part on US-based tech companies that aim to do business in Japan.

The VC affiliate was set up by Allen Miner, CEO of SunBridge Corp., a veteran angel investor in Japan who founded SunBridge in 1999 and grew it into one of Japan's leading incubators of emerging IT businesses.  Previously, Miner was president of Oracle Japan, which he set up, later realizing a fortune when the firm went public.

Miner said that SunBridge will follow the path of its Japanese parent, which has invested in 33 companies from two funds and has seen several successful IPOs, among them salesforce.com last year.

SunBridge Partners will target investments in computing, communications, and software.  In addition to direct investments and strategic involvement in US companies, Miner said SunBridge Partners will work closely with its parent in Tokyo to offer new and mature technology companies services to maximize revenues, gain competitive insight, and realize partnership opportunities in the Japanese market.

Joining Miner are three investment professionals from Equitek Capital: Ken Ehrhart, Paul Grim, and John Gannon.  The three formed the small investment firm in 2000, with offices in Northeast Ohio and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Two of the partners bring some specific Asian experience to the table.  Ehrhart was previously Director of Research with George Gilder of the Gilder Technology Report and has advised technology companies in Asia.  Grim, who is based in Palo Alto, was a former Strategy Managing Consultant at Gemini Consulting and Coopers & Lybrand France, and has advised many of Europe's leading telecom companies, implementing atrategies across numerous locations worldwide.

Gannon has the most unusual experience of the three, having been an orbit specialist with the General Electric Astro-Space Division, and before that, a risk manager at Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital.  At Barclays, Gannon led the Global Asia portfolio of currency derivative products, managing a team of traders through the Asian currency crisis.                                  -RAF