Eric Di Benedetto has over 15 years of Silicon Valley experience as a professional investor in software start-ups. Eric has invested in over 40 companies as a venture capitalist or as an angel investor since 1991. His investments have already led to 9 public offerings and 4 sales to public companies. Three of those companies (Signio, AdForce and CBT Group - now SkillSoft) reached market capitalizations in excess of $1 billion.
Eric is a general partner with Convergence Partners, a Silicon Valley based information technology venture capital firm with $200 million under management. The Convergence Partners funds are now fully invested. Eric manages four Convergence Partners investments (Amphire, Clickability, IdeaBlade and Penguin Computing) after sitting on the board of directors of ten others in the last ten years. Amphire, a provider of supply chain automation solutions to the food service industry, processed over $8 billion in transaction value on behalf of its customers in 2005. Clickability is an emerging single-source provider of on-demand web content management software-as-a-service used by blue-chip customers such as Cisco, Gray and Popular Mechanics. IdeaBlade provides productivity solutions for rapid development and deployment of enterprise internet applications. Penguin Computing is the leading vendor of Cluster Virtualization solutions, delivering virtualized cluster systems to the enterprise, High Performance Computing (“HPC”) and Web Hosting markets with over 2,000 customers worldwide.
After a successful career as a venture capitalist, Eric initiated a professional angel investment program in 2003. The program led to the 2006 establishment of Active Starts as an angel investment firm focused on the coaching and financing needs of entrepreneurs within a year from launching their products or services. Active Starts leads or participates in investment syndicates whose mission is to bridge start-up companies to market validation. Once a market opportunity has been proven, more traditional venture capital firms usually follow in subsequent rounds of financing.
Active Starts manages a portfolio of 11 software start-ups assembled between 2003 and 2006. The portfolio is broken down into the three balanced categories of "The Social Web", "Mobility Services" and "On-demand Applications". The firm will initiate its second investment cycle in 2007. Active Starts’ future areas of focus are expected to be consistent with the innovation acceleration enjoyed by the software industry and Eric’s expertise in software supporting the enterprise, mobility and the distribution of digital media developed over the last 15 years. Eric has been an angel investor in companies such as Collaxa (BPEL process manager, acquired by Oracle, ORCL in 2004), NeonYoyo (wireless delivery of targeted XML content, acquired by Interwoven, IWOV in 2000), Visible Path (enterprise relationship capital management software, funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers in 2004, and Menlo Ventures in 2006), ClairMail (one-click access to customer service and enterprise applications from any mobile device, funded by Norwest Venture Partners and Outlook Ventures in 2005, and 2006 SIIA Codie Award for Software Newcomer of the Year), Kalat (mobile search and communication services launched at PC Forum 2006), Xactly (on-demand sales compensation management, funded by Bay Partners and Rembrandt in 2005, and Outlook Ventures in 2006), GoFish (online video entertainment network), ActiveWeave (social layer of the web), RealTravel (user-contributed travel information), Plastyc (payment card for teenagers), Before The Call (on-demand prospect development management), Chegg (local student classifieds) and RapLeaf (portable and open reputation management system).
Before co-founding Convergence Partners in 1997, Eric was the managing director of US venture capital funds managed by BANEXI, the merchant banking arm of BNP (Banque Nationale de Paris, now BNP Paribas), including a joint partnership with Robertson Stephens & Co. Prior to his venture capital career, Eric was a workout and restructuring specialist with the PARGESA/Lambert Brussels Group, and a mergers and acquisitions associate covering defense electronics for Bankers Trust Company (now Deutsche Bank).
Eric holds an MBA degree from ESSEC, Paris, France, and a BA in mathematics and physics.
Eric was profiled in Business Week ("Go West, Young Whiz") and in The European ("Where the Brains Drain").
