iD Ventures America, LLC (formerly known as Acer Technology Ventures America, LLC) is a US venture capital entity of iD SoftCapital Group.
iD Ventures America has been active in the venture community since 1998. Currently we have a total of $200 million under management with $130 million in active investments through our latest funds: iD6 Fund established in 2005; iD8 Fund established in 2008; iD5 Annex Fund I established in 2010; and our most recent fund, iDE Fund established in 2015.
These funds are invested by various private investors. Our former funds, comprised of $300 million, have been fully invested into North America and Asia based companies.
Our Team
Management:
All our partners have multi-year, multi-national business operation experience in top executive positions. This will provide the high-level management perspective and knowledge often lacking in many start-up companies and provide the valuable guidance, which is so critical to early stage companies.
Ronald Chwang, Ph.D
Dr. Chwang is the Chairman and President of iD Ventures America. Dr. Chwang initiated the Acer venture investment activities in North America with the launch of “Acer Technology Venture Fund” in 1997. Subsequently, IDVA has successfully formed “IP Fund One’ in 2000, “iD6 Fund” in 2005 and “iD8 Fund” in 2008. Dr. Chwang is also a General Partner of iD SoftCapital.
Since 1998, iD Ventures America has managed a total of $250 million venture capital investment in innovating, technology start-up companies based in Silicon Valley, and the greater Boston area. Among the notable successes are iRobot (creator of consumer robots, Roomba, and military robot, Packbot); Harmonix Music (creator of music games: Guitar Hero and Rock Band), Artx (silicon chips for Nintendo GameCube), as well as chip design companies such as Allayer (acquired by Broadcom), Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ IPO), Centrality Communication System (acquired by SiRF), etc.
From 1986 to 1997, Dr. Chwang was with various Acer entities, serving in executive positions leading various business units in semiconductor chips, computer peripherals, and enterprise server systems. From 1992 to 1997, he was the President and CEO of Acer America Corporation which broke through the annual billion dollar revenue milestone in 1996. Before joining the Acer entities, Dr. Chwang worked in development and management positions at Intel in Oregon and Bell Northern Research in Ottawa.
Dr. Chwang is currently serving on the board of a number of iDVA’s portfolio companies: mCube Inc., Locix Inc., BioIntelliSense Corp., and Soovu Labs Inc.
Dr. Chwang holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. He also received an honorary Doctorate of Science from McGill University in 2012.
Ted Lai
Ted Lai is a Partner and Chief Financial Officer of iD Ventures America. Ted joined Acer Technology Ventures America after serving as controller of Acer America Corporation starting in 1998, and then later becoming CFO of Acer America Corporation in 2000. Prior to joining Acer, Ted worked as Chief Operating Officer of a Taiwan-based, international manufacturing and trading company. Ted also has eight years of experience as controller of a Taiwan-based airline company and four years as an auditor of the CPA firm Deloitte & Touche in Taiwan. Ted received his BS and MA degrees in Accounting from National Cheng Chi University. He also holds an MBA degree from Michigan State University.
Ed Yang
Ed Yang is a Partner of iD Ventures America. Ed retired in 2005 after over 25 years of services with Hewlett-Packard Company in Silicon Valley. While at HP, he held various positions including VP/CTO of Personal Systems Group and Computing Systems Organization, Co-Leader for Enterprise Systems of HP/Compaq merger, General Manager, Singapore Networks Operation as part of the Telecommunication Systems Unit, R&D Lab Managers, etc. Ed is currently serving as an independent board member for several public companies. Ed received his BS degree in EE from National Cheng-Kung University, Engineering Diploma from Philips International Institute, MS in EE from Oregon State University and Certificate of Completion of Stanford Executive Program.