Liam Casey, a Cork, Ireland-born entrepreneur, traveled to Taipei in 1996 on a whim to attend an electronics trade show. Within a year he had started his own supply chain manufacturing company in Shenzhen, China called PCH International (PCH stands for Pacific Coast Highway, a famous highway in Southern California where he lived for a while in the 90s).
Jump to 2007. PCH International rode the wave of Chinese growth to 800 employees and $125 million in revenue. The Atlantic Monthly did a long profile on Casey and his company, noting his deep connections to the U.S. and Europe as well and his ability to find the right factories for any any hardware project, and calling him “Mr. China.”
Until now the company has grown soley from cash flow and is “very profitable.” But Casey thinks it’s time to expand his operations and so he took $21 million in venture capital, a relatively small sum, from three Silicon Valley based venture funds: Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Focus Ventures.
PCH won’t disclose their clients, but say they work with most of the large PC and device manufacturers. And it has been reported that they are the primary hardware partner for the Chumby device, handling the assembly of components and ecommerce/shipping.