Monthly Archives: January 2014

Pune’s Cuelogic acquires California based mobile apps development company

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Pune based services company Cuelogic Technologies has just acquired the services arm of California based company Evolutionate, Inc. Excerpts from their press release:

The acquisition came out through a prior strategic partnership between the two companies in which Cuelogic offered Evolutionate and its customers, mobile application development services, cloud computing services and advanced testing services for their customers in enterprise and consumer software domain. Also, Cuelogic helped Evolutionate and its customers boost their internal team’s capacity and capabilities by providing them iOS and Android developers and designers for temporary and long-term assignments.

Last year, Cuelogic also acquired AU Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a mobile and web based game development company to boost and add game development services to the portfolio offerings.

Read the full press release

Pune based enterprise security firm Uniken raises investment from Nexus Venture Partners

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Pune-based enterprise security software company, Uniken, has just raised a round of funding from Nexus Venture Partners, reports the Economic Times. The amount of funding has not been disclosed, but the internet is claiming that it is around $4.8 million. This is Nexus’ second major investment

Uniken’s main product is the REL-ID platform which allows enterprise software to be accessed from remote clients (i.e. mobiles, laptops, or home computers of customers or employees) in a secure way, in spite of the fact that the client is connecting to the server via an untrusted internet connection.

Imagine a bank, which is able to give its customers a “secure” mobile app that connects to the bank servers over the internet, but then uses REL-ID’s “private communication circuts” to establish a secure connection between the app and the server. Similarly, imagine an the sales database of a company being accessed by one of the salespersons on the road using a laptop. REL-ID PCC can be used to secure the connection between the laptop and the enterprise app without requiring laptop to be on the company network, and without requiring a VPN.

So, how is Uniken’s solution different from using an SSL or IPSEC based VPN?

According to the company’s website, REL-ID PCC is based on the concept of App-to-App tunneling. VPN’s on the other hand are based on TCP/IP Tunneling technology. VPN’s are installed as virtual network adapters and need administrative rights on the client machine in order to install them. VPN’s do not come with in-built mutual authentication and encryption technologies, for that one has to additionally invest in 2-way SSL or IPSEC technologies, increasing the total cost and complexity of the solution. These solutions are not viable when it comes to roll-out to large number of users.

More information about the product is here and here.

The Economic Times reports:

The firm has filed three patents and expects to file 12 patents in next one year. “Uniken is disrupting the digital security space with this platform that provides military grade security with rich digital experience,” said Sandeep Singhal, managing director at Nexus.

So, in the last few days, we’ve made two additions to the list of Pune companies that have raised funding in recent times (and that is even without counting the 3rd round of funding for FirstCry, because that was already on the list.) Is any company missing from our list? Please let us know.

SEED Infotech launches “SEED IT Idol 2014” for college students

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Pune based technology training institute, SEED Infotech, has launched the 4th edition of “SEED IT Idol 2014”, a test of ‘C’ programming knowledge, for all students of engineering in the University of Pune, reports DNA India.

Excerpts:

The information technology (IT) Idol in Pune is being organised by SEED Infotech in association with the University of Pune (UoP), wherein students of engineering, MCM, MCS, MCA and all other computer-related educational programmes from all colleges affiliated to the UoP are eligible. The first round of the competition has already began.

Speaking about the initiative, executive director, SEED Infotech, Bharati Barhate, said, “Our aim is to tap the huge talent across colleges and make it industry ready. This year our target is to reach out to students across Maharashtra and for the first time to certain regions in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Jaipur and Bangalore.”

Read the full article

Baby products e-commerce retailer, Pune’s FirstCry.com raises Rs. 82cr funding

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Pune’s FirstCry.com, a baby-products online retail store, has just raised Rs. 82 cr from Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, and existing investors IDG Ventures, and Saif Partners, reports the Economic Times. This is FirstCry’s third round of funding. Previously FirstCry had raised $4 million in 2011, and $14 million in 2012.

Excerpts:

FirstCry, which has tied up with 500 brands, offers over 70,000 products including diapers, toys, toiletries, strollers, apparel and footwear as well as books and toys for children up to the age of 15 years. It also has 50 branded franchisee stores across 45 cities and expects to grow this network to 100 stores. It gets 20% of its revenue from mobile-based transactions.

First Cry was founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in December 2010. Before that, Supam was one of the founders of Pune based e-learning company Brainvisa Technologies, which was acquired by Indecomm Global Services for about $25 million in 2007. Amitava was a senior vice president at BrainVisa and had been there since 2003.

Pune’s LinguaNext, a localization software company, raises Series A funding from Helion

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LinguaNext, a Pune-based company that provides a “langauge management platform” for software products, has raised a round of funding form Helion Venture Partners, reports VCCircle.

LinguaNext creates software products that allow enterprise software to be “localized” to one or more languages without requiring any change in the source code of the software.

What is Localization?

Most software in the world first gets written with English as the language of interfacing with the user. The menus are in English, and the messages, and labels on forms, and user interface buttons are all in English. If the same software needs to be used by a Japanese person who does not understand any English, she will either have to memorize the meanings and locations of the various English menu options and buttons, or the software needs to be modified such that all the English in the interface is replaced by Japanese. The same thing needs to be repeated for every major language in the world (where the company has customers).

This process is called Localization

Why is Localization Hard?

All the places in the source code of the software where English might be embedded, and all the images used in the user-interface need to be replaced. This is a huge task, because often, enterprise software contains millions of lines of code.

And this has to be done for dozens of languages, if not 100+.

And this can’t be done just once. Because every time the original software is updated, the various localized versions need to be updated.

Sometimes, the source code of the software might not even be available, or it might be too difficult to change.

What does LinguaNext do?

LinguaNext has products that allow their customers to localize the software they sell without having to modify the source code of the software. They can attach themselves to running programs, and modify the user interface screen of the software on the fly, and replace the English text with the appropriate text from the target language. Similarly, with web-browser based software, they can modify the HTML/JavaScript that gets generated by the software and do the language replacement before the webpage is sent to the user.

How LinguaNext Works
This is how LinguaNext works. Note that the original application (in blue) is not modified at all. Instead, when the original app is sending data to the screen (technically, the screen buffer), or to the printer, LinguaNext intercepts it, replaces the English Text, and sends the modified data to the screen. (Click for full-size image.)

This is excellent for the customer. Being able to localize a software without having to modify the source code is a dream of the marketing department (which, otherwise has to deal with the tech guys before they start selling any version of any software in a new country).

But, there are lots of little problems that need to be solved to make this a reality. For example, consider this tricky problem: what happens if the space on the screen (in the menu dropdown, or on a button) isn’t wide enough for the new word that they want to put there. i.e. if the Hindi word that replaces a particular English word is very long and it won’t fit. They solve this problem by having language experts who are able to suggest alternative words that are smaller, or by developing special narrow fonts to fit in words like these.

Although technically LinguaNext was started only in 2010, the core technology for LinguaNext, and the CTO of the company (Rajeevlochan Phadke), both come from an earlier company called Image Point that was around – doing similar software – since 2002. In other words, they have been developing, fine-tuning and selling this software for a dozen years.

They do this with Oracle or SAP Applications, HR Applications, Cloud Apps, Windows Desktop Apps, and now Mobile Apps are the next big target. LinguaNext already has customers such as SBI (State Bank of India), Punjab National Bank, and sofrware maker SAP.

What will they do with the funding?

According to the press release, they will use the funding to “expand in international markets, hire talent and scale up its mobile platform.” Going to Japan and Europe is likely to be one of their major priorities. India has lots of local languages, and lots of need for localization, but really, Indian companies don’t really like paying for software. Japan and Europe has the non-English speaking people who pay lots of money for software. And of course, as any website owner will tell you, mobile apps are taking over the world, and soon, localization of Android and iPhone apps is likely to be a huge market.

Internship/Job Mela 2014 by POCC/CSI-Pune

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It’s back! The Pune Open Coffee Club (POCC) and The Computer Society of India, Pune Chapter (CSI) are organizing an internship mela again!

This mela is different! Here you will not meet the same old large corporations, but will meet up with Pune’s rocking startups!

The internship mela is on 18th Jan 2014, from 10am to 5pm at Millenium School, Karvenagar.

What’s so great about that?

Students: You don’t find so many startups in one place, at one time, all accessible to interact with you!

Startups: You get to meet a bunch of enthusiastic students from MCA, BCA, BE, and MBA, who are ready to work as interns at your great company, or would love to work with you on a long term basis too! Last year, there were 770 students!

Why work with startups?

Startups are cool. Startups are where the action is. The experience that you would get in a startup in a few months, would be better than what you would get from large corporations in a few years. In startups, you get an exposure to the various moving parts of a company – coding, testing, admin, HR, marketing… you name it! More than all of this, you get to work directly with founders of the company, who will one day make it very big (like Google, Twitter?).

What do startups want from me?

Life at startups can be very exciting – but you need to be prepared to give more than 100%. Many startups work on cutting edge technologies, and there is going to be a huge learning curve for you, to be able for you to meaningfully contribute to the company. So, it requires dedication, patience and a positive attitude.

I’m game. Am I eligible? Plus, when and where is the fair?

If you are pursuing your B.E, M.C.A, M.C.M, B.C.A, M.C.S, B.C.S or M.B.A, and want to / need to pursue your internship, then you are eligible. Great, right? The fair is on 18th January from 10am to 5pm. The venue is Millennium National School, 18 Hill Side, Karvenagar, Pune – 411052. The directions are at: http://myshala.in/team/contact-us/

What are startups expected to do there?

Get marketing material – lots of it. Visiting cards, leaflets and what not. Get banners – you will have one table of size 3ftx4ft for you. Get a laptop with a running PPT. Come with your mind prepared to be asked the same question a hundred times over, from 10am to 5pm. Stay for the whole duration – you never know when you might find the correct match. You can also interact with other startups to grow your network and see if you can find some synergy!

This must be costing a bomb?!

NO! This event is totally FREE of cost for students. However, prior registration is mandatory (and you have to arrange for your own food!).

For startups: the cost is Rs. 600 (to ensure that only serious companies participate – includes lunch and tea for two, and one electrical point.)

How do I register for the event?

After you register, you can follow the updates for the event on http://punestartups.org/events/internship-and-job-mela-2014

What do I need to do or bring along?

Get your resume along (d-uh!). Here is the format for the event:

  • The event starts at 10am and ends at 5pm. Come anytime in between.
  • Startups have been allocated spaces in the venue, and you are expected to go talk to them.
  • Startups will convince you why they are cool. You need to tell them why you are cool too!
  • Done! Go back with a great feeling of having interacted with Pune’s rocking startup community!

Short and sweet right?

Whom do I contact if I have any questions?

Join the POCC mailing list on punestartups@googlegroups.com, and ask away!

About Pune Open Coffee Club

With over 10000 members, the Pune Open Coffee Club is the largest forum for startups and entrepreneurs in Pune. It is an open forum, and anyone can join for free. See the PoCC website for more details.

Event website: http://punestartups.org/events/internship-and-job-mela-2014

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