Convergent Investors VI LP is comprised of Jimmy Mansour, BrianSmith and Willard Hanzlik, all in Austin, while its Houston-basedgeneral partners are John Chaney, Robert Gauntt and Steve Shaper. Aseventh general partner, Henry James, is based in Seattle. Mansouris a founder of two independent telecommunications companies;Smith, co-founder and CEO of Crossroads Systems Inc.; Hanzlik, aprivate investor and former principal of The Sterling Group; Chaneyand Shaper, founders and CEOs of Telecheck Inc.; Gauntt, aprincipal in Morgan Stanley & Co.; and James, a former generalpartner of Goldman Sachs & Co.

Convergent associate Chris Yeoman told GlobeSt.com that it'suncertain how much more money will become available in the futureto support the venture capital program. The funding, mostly doledout to Austin-based businesses, targets firms "with a unique idea,patent or whatever." The group, says Yeoman, started out threeyears ago as "a loose association of private investors ... we'renow formalized as a working fund."

He says the source of most of Convergent's deals have been inAustin, Dallas or Houston, but a few investments have been made inout-of-state operations, including GT Group Telecom, a Canadiantelecommunications company now headquartered in Toronto. To date,Convergent has invested in 11 early-stage operations, six of whichare the Austin-based startups of BroadJump Inc., Nepliance Inc.,Chicory Systems Inc., Grande Communications Inc., NanoscaleEngineering and Technology Group Inc. and Zebra Imaging Inc.