D. Christopher Keil

Global Investment Management

Founded in 1998, the TekStart Group is a privately held firm dedicated to turning breakthrough technology concepts into market-ready successes. TekStart provides investment, commercialization, and executive support, partnering with innovators to fund, build, and scale advanced technologies. Through its ChipStart® business unit, the company delivers custom ASIC design and outsourced operations for semiconductor, consumer electronics, and IoT companies. With deep expertise and a trusted partner network across North America and Europe, TekStart helps clients reduce risk, accelerate time-to-market, and unlock lasting value. Recently, our friends at Boldstart Ventures wrote a piece about “Inception Investing,” investing at the formation stage of the company, highlighting the evolution we’re seeing in the seed-stage venture market. We believe “Seed is the new Series A”, and that we must align our strategies and core competencies to where they’re best positioned for today’s market. While there are many different ways to play the Seed market, we’ve largely aligned around “Inception” investments (including our 6 most recent deals). This entry point enables us to get great exposure to teams heavily aligned with our strengths. We’ll even go as early as starting companies alongside founders (having incubated four companies in the last ten years). Through innovative training and development methodologies, TekStart aims to bring the best industry sales, marketing, and business development practices to companies of all sizes. In addition, TekStarts R&D team can lead cost-optimization projects by designing and delivering semiconductor solutions across various industries.

SALOMON SMITH BARNEY is a company based out of 290 MERRICK RD , ROCKVILLE CENTRE, New York, United States.