American River Ventures

American River Ventures is a venture capital and private equity firm based in Sacramento, California, established in 2001. The firm specializes in seed, early-stage, and growth capital investments, focusing on technology companies. Its investment areas include energy efficiency, energy intelligence, advanced materials, semiconductors, communications, wireless technologies, displays, data storage, and software. American River Ventures primarily targets opportunities in the Western United States and typically invests a minimum of $0.50 million in its portfolio companies.

John Kunhart

Managing Director and Co-Founder

Harry Laswell

MD, Managing Partner and Co-Founder

31 past transactions

Finatus

Series A in 2001
Finatus provides online services that enables small- and medium-sized businesses to comply with environmental health and safety regulations. The company’s suite of services combines regulatory data, directions, and online wizard tools to help a manager through the entire compliance and reporting process. Finatus was founded in 2000 and is based in Portland, Oregon.

WiSpry

Series A in 2005
WiSpry, Inc. develops fabless radio frequency semiconductor. It offers tunable RF components, digital capacitor arrays, RF evaluation kits, filters and duplexors, and power amplifiers. The company’s products are used in airbag sensors, game controllers, accelerometers, microoptics, video projection systems, and printer heads. It serves mobile handset manufacturers and network operators. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Irvine, California. As of May 7, 2015, WiSpry, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of AAC Technologies Holdings Inc.

SynapSense

Series B in 2007
SynapSense provides complete wireless instrumentation solutions that offer energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction for the world's leading data centers and enterprises.

Clairvoyante, Inc.

Series B in 2004
Clairvoyante develops PenTile RGBW technology to optimize screen brightness, resolution, and power consumption of flat-panel liquid crystal displays that enables high-brightness and low-power displays that needs to support data-centric 3G applications and contents. Clairvoyante is a U.S.-based company that was founded in 2000 by Candice Brown Elliott. The company was acquired by Samsung Electronics on March, 2008.

ReShape

Series C in 2004
ReShape provides EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software products and related services for the high end ASIC market. The company was founded in 1998 and it is located in the United States.

WiSpry

Series C in 2009
WiSpry, Inc. develops fabless radio frequency semiconductor. It offers tunable RF components, digital capacitor arrays, RF evaluation kits, filters and duplexors, and power amplifiers. The company’s products are used in airbag sensors, game controllers, accelerometers, microoptics, video projection systems, and printer heads. It serves mobile handset manufacturers and network operators. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Irvine, California. As of May 7, 2015, WiSpry, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of AAC Technologies Holdings Inc.

KeyEye Communications

Venture Round in 2006
KeyEye Communications, Inc. went out of business. KeyEye Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, provides connectivity solutions on structured copper twisted pair cables. It offers 10Gbps Ethernet transceivers that deliver 10GBASE-T connectivity over data center cable reaches. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Sacramento, California. KeyEye Communications, Inc. has product design centers in San Jose, California; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Integrated Materials

Series C in 2005
Integrated Materials, Inc., a silicon science and technology company, manufactures poly silicon furnaceware products for integrated circuit manufacturers. It offers boats, injectors, liners, pedestals, ring boats, and shelf boats. The company‘s products are used in high temperature processes, LPCVD processes, and thermal operations. Integrated Materials, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. As of July 12, 2010, Integrated Materials, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Ferrotec (USA) Corporation.

SpectraSensors

Series C in 2007
SpectraSensors, Inc. manufactures and supplies precision optical laser-based gas analyzers for the energy and petrochemical industries. Its products include air monitoring, moisture, dew point, hydrogen sulfide, H2S, dual channel, and atmospheric and portable gas analyzers for natural gas pipelines and processors, petrochemical refineries, and chemical companies. The company's solutions measure and monitor gas and petrochemical concentrations in a variety of applications, such as environmental, energy, water, and chemical process monitoring. Its gas analyzers measure moisture, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, methane, ammonia, and ethylene oxide. The company also provides communication software systems, such as SCADA2000 for data acquisition, control, and monitoring of custody transfer metering; and CMC, a communications management center for automated and on-demand polling of field monitoring devices. SpectraSensors offers its products through an international distribution network and installation base in North America, Europe, the Pacific Rim, Australia, and Asia. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas with engineering, design, and manufacturing operations in Rancho Cucamonga, California. SpectraSensors was acquired in 2012 by Swiss company Endress+Hauser, a global leader in measurement instrumentation, services and solutions for industrial process engineering.

Senforce Technologies

Venture Round in 2004
Senforce technology provides protection by enforcing encryption policies at employees' computers, whether they are online or offline. The software includes "location-aware enforcement" that prevents unauthorized access to a network by automatically adjusting security controls and protections based on the user's location.

Incuity Software

Series A in 2006
Incuity Software, Inc. is a privately-held Delaware corporation founded in 2004 in Mission Viejo, California. Although new as a corporation, the founders and staff of Incuity Software, formerly known as DataWorks Systems, have a long history in the design, development and marketing of industrial automation database and data analysis software products.

KeyEye Communications

Series A in 2003
KeyEye Communications, Inc. went out of business. KeyEye Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, provides connectivity solutions on structured copper twisted pair cables. It offers 10Gbps Ethernet transceivers that deliver 10GBASE-T connectivity over data center cable reaches. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Sacramento, California. KeyEye Communications, Inc. has product design centers in San Jose, California; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

SynapSense

Series A in 2006
SynapSense provides complete wireless instrumentation solutions that offer energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction for the world's leading data centers and enterprises.

Finatus

Series B in 2002
Finatus provides online services that enables small- and medium-sized businesses to comply with environmental health and safety regulations. The company’s suite of services combines regulatory data, directions, and online wizard tools to help a manager through the entire compliance and reporting process. Finatus was founded in 2000 and is based in Portland, Oregon.

KeyEye Communications

Series B in 2004
KeyEye Communications, Inc. went out of business. KeyEye Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, provides connectivity solutions on structured copper twisted pair cables. It offers 10Gbps Ethernet transceivers that deliver 10GBASE-T connectivity over data center cable reaches. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Sacramento, California. KeyEye Communications, Inc. has product design centers in San Jose, California; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

SpectraSensors

Series B in 2005
SpectraSensors, Inc. manufactures and supplies precision optical laser-based gas analyzers for the energy and petrochemical industries. Its products include air monitoring, moisture, dew point, hydrogen sulfide, H2S, dual channel, and atmospheric and portable gas analyzers for natural gas pipelines and processors, petrochemical refineries, and chemical companies. The company's solutions measure and monitor gas and petrochemical concentrations in a variety of applications, such as environmental, energy, water, and chemical process monitoring. Its gas analyzers measure moisture, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, methane, ammonia, and ethylene oxide. The company also provides communication software systems, such as SCADA2000 for data acquisition, control, and monitoring of custody transfer metering; and CMC, a communications management center for automated and on-demand polling of field monitoring devices. SpectraSensors offers its products through an international distribution network and installation base in North America, Europe, the Pacific Rim, Australia, and Asia. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas with engineering, design, and manufacturing operations in Rancho Cucamonga, California. SpectraSensors was acquired in 2012 by Swiss company Endress+Hauser, a global leader in measurement instrumentation, services and solutions for industrial process engineering.

KeyEye Communications

Series B in 2006
KeyEye Communications, Inc. went out of business. KeyEye Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, provides connectivity solutions on structured copper twisted pair cables. It offers 10Gbps Ethernet transceivers that deliver 10GBASE-T connectivity over data center cable reaches. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Sacramento, California. KeyEye Communications, Inc. has product design centers in San Jose, California; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Lumetric Lighting

Series A in 2008
Lumetric Lighting, Inc. provides lighting and controls systems. The company offers HID light sources, induction light sources, energy savings lighting sources, and plug-n-play motion sensors. Its products are used for lighting large areas, such as warehouses, retail spaces, manufacturing facilities, railway stations, airports, supermarkets, and stadiums. The company was formerly known as HID Laboratories, Inc. Lumetric Lighting, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

WiSpry

Series B in 2006
WiSpry, Inc. develops fabless radio frequency semiconductor. It offers tunable RF components, digital capacitor arrays, RF evaluation kits, filters and duplexors, and power amplifiers. The company’s products are used in airbag sensors, game controllers, accelerometers, microoptics, video projection systems, and printer heads. It serves mobile handset manufacturers and network operators. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Irvine, California. As of May 7, 2015, WiSpry, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of AAC Technologies Holdings Inc.

PocketThis

Series C in 2004
PocketThis was founded in 1999 and has more than 35 employees. They're based in the Silicon Valley in northern California and have European offices in London, Paris and Sweden. PocketThis delivers packaged software that allows mobile operators to rapidly partner with content and service providers, create new and useful services, and generate increased mobile data services revenue.

Xponent

Series C in 2007
Xponent Photonics, Inc. manufactures surface mount photonic components for optical assemblies. It offers triplexers and diplexers for single-fiber applications, including PON, point-to-point, and bidirectional radio frequency (RF) systems. Xponent Photonics serves optical systems vendors, transceiver suppliers, and optical subsystem suppliers. The company was formerly known as cQuint Communications Corporation and changed its name to Xponent Photonics, Inc. in March 2002.

SynapSense

Series C in 2009
SynapSense provides complete wireless instrumentation solutions that offer energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction for the world's leading data centers and enterprises.

OpenClovis

Series B in 2005
OpenClovis Solutions, Inc. develops and deploys commercial off-the-shelf software infrastructure platform for Tier 1 carrier and enterprise networks worldwide. It provides SAFplus High Availability and Scalability Platform that allows to add the management and service layer to design; Integrated Development Environment that simplifies and accelerates the development of networking and computing equipment; and Test Automation Environment Tool that provides lifecycle testing requirements in a distributed networking. The company also offers Runtime Director, a web-based cluster management solution integrated with SAFplus that allows SAF AMF entities in the cluster to be viewed and modified using an intuitive graphical interface. It serves networking, telecommunications, aerospace/defense, compute platforms, Internet of Things, high frequency gaming, and MMO gaming markets. OpenClovis Solutions, Inc. was formerly known as Clovis Solutions, Inc. and changed its name to OpenClovis Solutions, Inc. in May 2006. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Petaluma, California. It has research and development centers in Bengaluru, India; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Triformix

Series A in 2003
Triformix

Agoura Technologies

Series A in 2005
Agoura Technologies, Inc., a nanotechnology company, develops optical films.

WiSpry

Series B in 2008
WiSpry, Inc. develops fabless radio frequency semiconductor. It offers tunable RF components, digital capacitor arrays, RF evaluation kits, filters and duplexors, and power amplifiers. The company’s products are used in airbag sensors, game controllers, accelerometers, microoptics, video projection systems, and printer heads. It serves mobile handset manufacturers and network operators. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Irvine, California. As of May 7, 2015, WiSpry, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of AAC Technologies Holdings Inc.

ReShape

Series B in 2002
ReShape provides EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software products and related services for the high end ASIC market. The company was founded in 1998 and it is located in the United States.

SynapSense

Venture Round in 2010
SynapSense provides complete wireless instrumentation solutions that offer energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction for the world's leading data centers and enterprises.