[4] It was established in 1981[5] by L. J. Sevin, a former Texas Instruments engineer,[6] and Ben Rosen, and was[7][8][9] one of the leading investors on the US West Coast.

He later sold his VisiCorp stock for $800,000, eight months after Sevin Rosen invested in Lotus, the competitor that destroyed VisiCalc.

[11] First, the pair attempted to start a new semiconductor company, and when that didn't work out, they raised $25 million for SRF's first two venture funds with help from Thomas Unterberg.

[1] Investments include Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Capstone Turbine, Ciena,[1] Citrix Systems, Compaq, Cyrix, Cytokinetics, Electronic Arts, NetLogic Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, MetaCarta,[13] Splunk,[14] Cypress Semiconductor,[15] Ciena Corporation,[1] Vitesse Semiconductor,[6][16] Slacker, Wayport, XenSource, YouSendIt.

"[7] As of 2014, the Boston Business Journal reported that Jon Bayless "hopes to raise up to $150 million for what would be Sevin Rosen’s first new fund in eight years.

[7] The company founded and funded an award that gives recognition to "innovative technical achievement with potential for entrepreneurial success" at Berkeley[37] and a grant for "membership in Austin Technology Incubator.