A well-funded Swiss chip startup has shifted its headquarters to Orange County.
BridgeCo Inc., which got its start as Switzerland’s BridgeCo AG, incorporated in the U.S. more than two years ago. But the company didn’t set up a base here until it leased a small Huntington Beach office late last year.
The company, which designs chips and software that help home audio devices wirelessly stream music over the Internet or home networks, has made the local office its functional headquarters.
BridgeCo’s office in Zurich, where it started in 2000, works on research and development.
“The board,as it realized this could become a global company,was on a mission to build a stronger U.S. presence,” Chief Executive Gene Sheridan said.
The company looked to OC to hire workers, including the recent additions of a technology chief and a head of engineering.
The Huntington Beach office, which has half a dozen workers, includes some Swiss executives.
“We felt that Orange County was better positioned for a tech startup in terms of talent,” Sheridan said.
Huntington Beach ultimately won out over South County because it is commuting distance to Los Angeles, where Sheridan and other executives live.
The local office is set to have managers, sales, marketing and customer service and grow to about 20 workers.
Sheridan, 43, was recruited by BridgeCo’s board more than two years ago to launch the U.S. headquarters.
He was handpicked from El Segundo-based chipmaker International Rectifier Corp., where he worked for nearly two decades.
“Part of what I did at International Rectifier was very entrepreneurial and I knew that I wanted to eventually run my own business,” Sheridan said.
Most recently, Sheridan was vice president of International Rectifier’s computing, communication and consumer unit.
Venture Funding
BridgeCo has raised some $70 million in venture funding to date.
A few weeks ago, the company said it tacked on another $6 million to its fourth funding round, which saw a $17 million cash infusion in 2007 and $12 million in 2006.
Investors include Advent Venture Partners LLP, Balderton Capital Management LLP, Cipio Partners, Earlybird Venture Capital, ETV Capital, Fidelity Ventures, Wellington Partners and Intel Capital, the venture arm of chipmaker Intel Corp.
BridgeCo indirectly competes with other chipmakers in the area, including Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. and Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc., which make wireless networking chips for home electronics.
Its technology helps audio devices play music from Internet radio stations and songs stored on a PC or a portable digital music player.
One if its offerings, dubbed “JukeBlox,” allows makers of home audio gear to easily incorporate the chips and software into their devices.
JukeBlox supports subscription music services from Best Buy Co.’s Napster Inc., RealNetworks Inc.’s Rhapsody, Pandora Media Inc.’s free Internet radio site and Sirius XM Radio Inc.’s satellite radio.
Local Parallels
BridgeCo’s story has some parallels to another newly minted local chip startup: Symwave Inc.
Both had their roots in designing chips for FireWire, a cord that plugs into a device, such as a camcorder, to transfer data quickly to a computer.
In BridgeCo’s case, FireWire connected
a musical instrument directly to a PC or other digital recording and mixing gear. It was marketed to musicians and recording professionals.
Symwave was going after a better FireWire chip to speed up the transfer of data to and from a PC to consumer devices.
Symwave moved to Laguna Niguel from San Diego last year and completely changed its focus to the next generation of universal serial bus ports, or USB.
BridgeCo headed into streaming music chips about five years ago.
“Like a lot of startups, we began in one direction and ended up in another,” Sheridan said. “In the very near future every radio, stereo and audio system will have a network interface.”
BridgeCo doesn’t disclose sales. The company isn’t profitable but is expecting to break even in 2010 or 2011, Sheridan said.
Its customers include makers of home audio electronics, including Royal Philips Electronics NV, Harman International Industries Inc.’s JBL unit and Denon Electronics LLC, among others.
More deals with big-name players are set to be announced later this year, Sheridan said.
