Xenventure is a boutique, multi-disciplinary venture firm based in London and San Francisco. The Xenventure team comprises professionals drawn from the financial, telecommunications, and transportation industries in Europe and North America. Xenventure provides independent consulting services encompassing business analysis, product development, project management, strategic seed capital financing, and human resources for small, fast-growth technology companies.

Jim Baker – Founder & Managing Partner

Jim founded Xenventure in early 2010. He was formerly founder and CEO of the award-winning Moovera Networks where in 2006 he conceived the Moovbox, one of the first ruggedized, multi-radio cellular gateways for in-vehicle connectivity.  At Moovera, Jim and his team designed and implemented on-board broadband communications systems on trains and buses for some of the world’s largest transit operators including FirstGroup, Arriva, Stagecoach, National Express and Go-Ahead. Moovera was acquired by Icomera AB of Sweden in June 2008, and Jim served as Chief Marketing Officer at Icomera while heading up U.S. operations until the end of his earn-out period in June 2010.

Prior to Moovera, Jim was founder and CEO at Telabria, an award-winning pioneer of WiMAX-class outdoor networks which in 2005 built the UK’s largest rural broadband communications network covering over 1,400 square miles. In addition, Telabria created the technology behind the UK’s largest municipal outdoor Wi-Fi network at the time in Norwich, Norfolk using over 400 nodes mounted on street lights.  Before Telabria, Jim was founder and CEO at 21st Century Media Inc., a San Francisco-based digital media agency with offices in New York and Burbank. Clients included Apple, Reebok, Time Warner, Viacom and HBO. Founded in 1991 the company was successfully acquired by NASDAQ-listed Media 100 Inc. (NASDAQ:MDEA) in April 2000.

Jim is currently Chair of the Technology Committee at the Joint Council on Transit Wireless Communications, a federation of transportation organizations and stakeholders created to represent passenger transportation service operators nationwide within the United States on matters of wireless voice and data communications.  Jim writes the ‘Unwired’ column for Mass Transit Magazine, one of the leading U.S. publications in the public transportation industry.

Jim serves as a Director on boards of several technology companies, including Switzerland-based MNG Europe SA, US-based 3D Motion Imagery Inc., US-based Xentrans Inc. and cloud software start-up Xencode. He also sits on the Advisory Board of the London-based Global Transport Forum.  Jim is a regular speaker at industry conferences and events around the world, focusing on M2M and 4G technologies, and mobile broadband in public transportation.

Contact Jim via LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jnb65