Zenverge founders, Amir Mobini and Tony Masterson, honed up on their MPEG technology prowess with startup iCompression (founded 1996) and later at Globespan which acquired the startup in May 2000 for $400 million -- just as the tech boom was peaking.  Working together for 14 years, they were developing MPEG encoding products which became a hot tech subject in the late 1980s and PVRs were making their debut in the consumer market.  At iCompression, the pair worked on low-cost, real-time MPEG2 video/audio/system encoders for consumer and PC markets.  At Globespan, Mobini served as an engineering director and helped develop the world's first fully integrated MPEG-2 encoder and codec ICs.  Eventually, GlobespanVirata spun out the video technology to form Conexant Systems and its MPEG encoding business ramped up to about $30 million annual run rate by 2005.  

Founded in 2001, Redpine Signals distinguished itself in the semiconductor startup community as a classic case of how to succeed and prosper without taking VC money.   The initial seed funding came from the founders, family and friends. There are just a handful of chip makers which bootstrapped their growth and were able to break out from the design house or IP pack.  Later, Redpine made deals with strategic partners without equity participation. 

After four years in development, the company's first product was a low-power licensable 802.11b/g platform. One of the first in the industry to launch a single stream 802.11n chipset in late 2007, the company offers several modules and sub-systems in its wireless product portfolio.  Today, the San Jose, Calif. headquartered firm operates as a fabless chip maker with a staff of 110 employees -- most of whom reside at Redpine's design center in Hyderabad, India.   Its key manufacturing partners are TSMC for fab and ASE for assembly/test.

Founded in 2004, Fresco Microchip was created to address the changes that are occurring in the digital television market.  The world's broadcast industry is rapidly evolving from analog to digital broadcasting and this initiates the need for universal reception and signal conversion for legacy analog, digital terrestrial and cable transmissions.  The  fabless semiconductor company is focused on leading edge RF, mixed-signal, and DSP architectures for consumer markets.

Fresco obtained a commitment of $14.7 million in July 2005 from a group of VCs led by Celtic House and Ventures West.