Charles River Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in early stage investments. The firm also participates in seed financings and can invest across all stages. It seeks to invest in companies engaged in the communications and technology, datacenter infrastructure, enterprise software and services, and media and entertainment sectors. Within communications and technology, investments are made in broadband, wireless, and enabling chip technologies. The firm seeks investment opportunities in system and software solutions that scale the enterprise IT infrastructure while investing in the datacenter infrastructure industry. Investments are sought in opportunities enabled by the open source movement in relation to the enterprise software and services industry. Additionally, the firm invests in new products and services enabled by the pervasive digital infrastructure in the media and entertainment sector. It typically seeks to make initial investments between $25000 and $5 million and invests between $5 million and $10 million over the life of the portfolio company. The firm prefers to be the lead or first investor to acquire a minority stake in its portfolio companies. Additionally, through the QuickStart Seed Funding Program, it provides entrepreneurs with convertible loans up to $250,000. These loans convert into equity when the company closes its next round of funding typically a Series A round, in which the firm may participate. Charles River Ventures was founded in 1970 and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts with an additional office in Menlo Park, California.