Venture Capital Firms

Wireless TV Takes Off With Amimon

Amimon is the latest in digital television technology. The company’s product line is WHDI, which is a wireless digital interface that allows digital TV users to view high quality digital images and hear high quality digital audio through a 40 MHz channel in a 5GHz band that is unlicensed for use and falls well into the guidelines of FCC regulations in the United States. What makes WHDI so revolutionary is that its signal can be reached from over one hundred feet and can even go through walls. WHDI brings into the spectrum of viewing high definition digital TV the very thing that regular HDTV lacks. The ability to send compressed high definition video from one unit to another without sacrificing image quality and dropped signals. Furthermore, Amimon’s video technology platform is the base of WHDI and allows the video coding and modulation to be optimized together in real time and allow capabilities that would not be possible through conventional digital video technologies.

One example on how this technology works is that the typical video stream will usually stream through at a rate of eight to ten bit stream. This means that a high quality image can be lost depending on the connection of the device that the video is being viewed from. On the other hand, WHDI takes the compressed video and sends it to the device in a high quality HD format and breaks the stream into elements of importance, preventing the constant interruptions in video streaming that frequent regular video streaming.

WHDI video can be transmitted through the use of Amimon’s video modules. Amimon’s wireless modules use the base band receivers and transmitters that can transmit the video signal in unimaginable clarity. Some of Amimon’s product lines are the AMN 11310 Transmitter Module, which is a transmitter for the WHDI signal and is designed to be integrated with HD-DVD Blue Ray players, STBs, video game counsels, and PC computers. This device can connect to your television set to these mentioned devices wirelessly and the quality of the video and audio will not be compromised.

Another device that Amimon manufactures is the AMN 12310, which is a receiver module and this device is designed to be integrated with television sets, computer monitors, and projectors and it will pick up WHDI signal from the above mentioned product.

Other products of Amimon include the Amimon Audio Video HD ICs. This product line is designed to deliver high quality uncompressed HD video and audio. The products in this product line include the AMN 2110 Amimon Base Band and the AMN 3110 RFIC Transmitter chips can be imbedded into this device to connect to video output devices as the ones mentioned in the paragraph with the AMN 11310 product line. The next corresponding product is the AMN 2210 Amimon Base Band with the imbedded AMN 3210 RFIC Receiver Chip that can be added to video output devices, such as television sets, monitors, projectors, etc.

Amimon is a privately owned corporation that is based in Santa Clara, California and its management team consists of Galia Ben-Dor, Vice President of Human Resources; Aviram Matosevich, Vice President of Engineering; Noam Gari, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development; ZVI Reznik, Vice President of R & D; Yoav Nissan-Cohen, CEO and Company Chairman; Meir Feder, CTO; and Issana Roudnitz, Vice President of Finance.

Dr. Yoav Nissan-Cohen has over twenty years of experience in the semiconductor industry and was also the CEO of Tower Semiconductor. During his tenure at Tower Semiconductor, Dr. Nissan-Cohen lead the building of a $1.5 billion facility and worked on advancing new technologies for the company. Dr. Nissan-Cohen also held high management positions at Saifun Semiconductor, where he is still a special advisor to that company. Dr. Nissan-Cohen was also the engineering manager at National Semiconductor Israel and worked as a research scientist at General Electric. Dr. Nissan-Cohen graduated from the Hebrew University with a PhD Summa Cum Laude in Applied Physics and was also in the Israeli Air Force as a jet fighter pilot.
Besides being Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Noam Geri is also the cofounder of Amimon. Mr. Geri’s career in the communications technology industry spans over 12 years and before 2003 he worked for Texas Instruments where he worked as the company’s strategic marketing and business development manager. Mr. Geri also worked for Libit and served in the elite Israeli R&D Special Defense Forces for five years. Mr. Geri Graduated from the Tel-Aviv Univesrity with a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and then went on to Stanford University, where he received an MBA from the university’s business school.

The other cofounder of Amimon is ZVI Reznik, who is also the company’s Vice President of R & D. Like Mr. Geri, Dr. Reznik is also a graduate from Tel-Aviv University with a PhD in Information Theory and worked to help cofound Amimon after completing his PhD at Tel-Aviv University. Dr. Reznik also worked at Texas Instruments Cable Broadband Communications as the design manager until 2001. While working in this position, Dr. Reznik was responsible for 45 engineers and oversaw them develop algorithm development, RTLs and IC cable modems. Dr. Reznik is also an ingenious inventor with over 20 inventions or co-inventions that are either patented or patent pending.

The third cofounder of Amimon is Prof. Meir Feder, who also works at the company as its CTO, and he is also a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering Department at Tel-Aviv University. Prof. Feder is also well known worldwide in technological circles as an authority in signal processing and information theory and has also published over 100 publications in this field of expertise. Prof. Feder also consulted with several high-tech companies during his academic career and has worked together with Intel on designing algorithms for Intel’s MMX architecture. In 1998, Prof. Feder cofounded Peach Networks, which is a company that provides interactive television systems, and was later acquired by Microsoft. Prof. Feder also founded Bandwiz in 2000, which is a company that develops content delivery systems for businesses. Prof. Feder graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a ScD degree.

Galia Ben-Dor works at Amimon as the company’s Vice President of Human Resources and Information Systems. Ms. Ben-Dor came to Amimon in 2006 and before that she worked at Aladdin Knowledge Systems as the director of corporate HR. Aladdin Knowledge Systems is a company that develops digital security solutions and Ms. Ben-Dor was responsible for global human resources at the company. Ms. Ben-Dor also worked at Checkpoint Software Technologies, which is an internet security software developer. There Ms. Ben-Dor managed the company’s human resources department in Israel. Ms. Ben-Dor graduated from Haifa University with a BA in Psychology and Sociology and then went on to Tel-Aviv University, where she graduated with an MBA in Management and Organizational Behavior from the university’s school of business.

Aviram Matosevich is Amimon’s Vice President of Engineering and came to work at the company in 2006. Mr. Matosevich has over 18 years of experience in business and management development, as well as experience in product engineering, QA reliability, customer support and supply chain management in the high-tech industry. Before coming to Amimon, Mr. Matosevich worked at Nova Instruments as the company’s global service manager. Mr. Matosevich also worked at other companies, that include M-Systems and Tower Semiconductor.

Iassana Roudnitz is Amimon’s Vice President of Finance and she is in charge of all the financial operations at Amimon. Ms. Roudnitz came to Amimon in 2006 and before coming to the company, she worked at Oplus, Inc. as Director of Finance and Operations. Ms. Roudnitz also worked at Optun as the company’s CFO.

Amimon’s investors include Argonaut Private Equity, the Cedar Fund, Evergreen Venture Partners, Motorola Ventures, STATA Venture Partners, and Walden Israel.

Argonaut Private Equity is a private equity firm that specializes in diversified global private equity. Argonaut Private Equity has over $2 billion under its management and was given to the firm by one entrepreneur. Argonaut Private Equity primarily invests in companies in the consumer electronics, medical devices, drug discovery and delivery, aviation, and healthcare industries. Some companies in Argonaut’s portfolio include Novariant, Veraz Networks, Infinera, TransPharma Medical, and others.

The Cedar Fund is a vc firm that invests in companies in the high-tech industry and seeks entrepreneurs who stand out and have a product or intellectual property which is capable to generate good market growth. The Cedar Fund has over $225 million under its management and is one of the largest vc firms that invests in early-stage companies based in Israel. Some companies in the Cedar Fund’s portfolio include BigBand Networks, Orsus Solutions, NewACT, MediaLayers, and others.

Evergreen is one of Israel’s most prominent and leading vc firms that invests in early-stage companies which are in the tech and medical industries. Evergreen was founded in 1987 and has $650 million in private equity under its management. Some companies in Evergreen’s portfolio include Ethos Networks, TransPharma Medical, Crescendo, eASIC, Flash Networks, Olista, PeerApp, and others.

STATA Venture Partners is a global private equity fund that seeks lucrative business opportunities in early stage companies who have stakes in highly lucrative markets. STATA Venture Partners’ major portion of investments in the communications, IT, and semiconductor industries. Some of the companies in STATA’s portfolio include Provigent, neoSaej, Nantero, and others.

Motorola Ventures is the vc arm of the cellphone maker, Motorola, Inc. and it invests in all stages of companies in the tech industry that have potential value to Motorola. Some of the companies in Motorola’s portfolio include Mobile Complete, Trapeze Networks, bDNA, Virtual Logics, A123 Systems, Kineto Wireless, and others.

Founded in 1993, Walden Israel is a major Israeli vc firm that has since its inception been dedicated in financing Israeli companies and manages three different funds which invest in the communications and IT industries. Some of the companies in Walden Israel’s portfolio include Zend Technologies, Passave, nLayers, Siana Mobile Silicon, and others.

Amimon has some competitors and its major competitor is RedMere Technology, which is a company that develops semiconductors and innovative components for the consumer media, PC, and storage markets. The company’s main product is the MagnifEye signal processing technology and this technology works well with HD media and storage devices. RedMere was founded in 2004 and is based in Dublin, Ireland and employs 38 people. RedMere has six people on its management team and its primary investors are Celtic House Venture Partners, Enterprise Ireland, 4th Level Ventures, and Enterprise Equity.

For more information about Amimon, click here.

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