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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.

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

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech Calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in. (Note: If you don’t get 4 or 5 event annoucements by email every week from PuneTech, you are not subscribed to the PuneTech calendar of events. Click here to subscribe (free).)

CMG Pune half-day conference on Performance, Capacity, Instrumentation, Measurement

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CMG India, a professionals’ forum for measurement and quantitative analysis in IT enterprises, invites performance engineering and capacity management professionals to their second half-day event in Pune, on Friday, 20th December, 2:30pm, at TCS, Nagar Road. This event is free for anyone to attend. See CMGIndia website for details on how to register.

After a competitive round of paper submissions and stringent review by a technical program committee, the following have been selected for presentation at this event:

Agenda

  • 2:30pm: Welcome Note
  • 2:40pm: A High Performing Scalable Architecture to Instrument Software Applications, Anand Kumar, TCS
  • 3:20pm: Messaging Protocols for Real Time System Data Sharing, Deepti Nagarkar, Persistent
  • 4:00pm: Break
  • 4:10pm: Guerilla Capacity Assessment using USL, Prajakta Bhatt, Infosys
  • 4:50pm: Prize Distribution for 1st Pune Event Quiz Contest & Windup

A High Performing Scalable Architecture to Instrument Software Applications

By Anand Kumar

Software applications have become larger and more complicated in design. This increased complexity and scale in software application design present difficult challenges in asserting software quality. Software instrumentation is an effective solution in measuring and improving a software application’s quality. By examining the data gathered by the various instruments, it is possible to determine the cause for the software application failure and a causal analysis of the context in which the failure happened can lead to improvement in the overall software quality. In this paper, we discuss about a generic instrumentation for software applications which can be used to assert software quality. We also discuss about architecture of this generic instrumentation. We illustrate the capabilities of this generic instrumentation using couple of case studies.

Anand is currently a Senior Scientist at TCS Innovation Labs, Pune with research interests in Architecture, Processes, Systems, and Services. He has two decades of experience in the IT industry spanning across programming, architecture, and research.

Messaging Protocols for Real Time System Data Sharing

By Deepti Nagarkar

An introduction to protocols primarily used to share data for Real time systems along with a brief comparison with each other. Realtime systems have different requirements with respect to data delivery. There are protocols explicitly designed to deliver according to these specifications. Protocols analyzed are – DDS, STOMP and AMQP.

Deepti is currently with Persistent Systems Performance Engineering Group. She has over 6.5 years experience in J2EE across a number of projects and domains. Deepti has done her B.E. Computers from Pune University.

Guerilla Capacity Assessment using USL

By Prajakta Bhatt

Traditional Capacity Assessment exercises come with their own challenges. This paper aims to cover how these challenges can be surpassed using Guerilla techniques, originally proposed by Dr. Neil Gunther. It introduces the concept of scalability and shows how Universal Scalability law (USL) can be employed to model scalability of the Systems realistically, combining both Hardware/Software aspects together. USL aids in arriving at maximum point of throughput, beyond which the system performance degrades. This paper, shows how this theoretical limit can be used to predict capacity of a live database server through a detailed case study.

Prajakta is working as a Technology Architect, in NFRs technical focus group that specializes in Performance Engineering Activities at Infosys. She has over 9.5+ years of experience in software development, project management and Performance Engineering across various domains and technologies of applications. She has done M.S. (Software Systems) from BITS, Pilani and B.E. (CSE) from Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad.

About CMG Pune

Computer Measurement Group is a not-for-profit, worldwide organisation of IT professionals committed to sharing information and best practices focused on ensuring the efficiency and scalability of IT service delivery to the enterprise through measurement, quantitative analysis, and forecasting. CMG Inc, which is headquartered in New Jersey, USA was setup in 1975 and it now has more than 25 US and International Chapters.

CMG India has been recently setup with the objective of networking performance engineering and capacity management professionals across India. Large IT systems across India need to process millions of transactions per day and CMG India will allow for the experts to share their experiences and learn from one another. The facilitation will be done through regional events across major cities, an annual conference, and posting technical articles on this site.

See the CMG India website for more information.

Fees and Registration

Seating capacity is limited. Event participation is only for CMG India members – but you can sign up for a free membership here. Members can register for this event by sending an email to pune-events@cmgindia.org from their registered email ids. For details about the venue contact Abhay_Pendse@persistent.co.in

Event Website: http://www.cmgindia.org/events/event/2nd-cmg-india-pune-event/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the original website/registration link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

Note: you are currently subscribed to the PuneTech main newsfeed. However, there are lots of technology events happening in Pune every week, and most of those are not posted on the main newsfeed. If you want to be informed by email about all the tech events happening in Pune, you need to separately subscribe to the PuneTech Calendar. It’s free so what are you waiting for? Check out the PuneTech Calendar to get an idea of the kinds of events that you’re missing out on.

Turing100 Lecture: Talk on the Life and work of Andrew Chi-Chih Yao

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In 2000, Andrew Chi-Chih Yao was given the Turing Award In recognition of his fundamental contributions to the theory of computation, including the complexity-based theory of pseudorandom number generation, cryptography, and communication complexity. For more details of his work, see the Turing Awards website

Jaikumar Radhakrishnan, of TIFR will talk about “Combinatorial Limits on Efficient Computation”, followed by Srikanth Srinivasan, Dept. of Mathematics, IIT Bombay, who will talk about “Yao’s complexity-based theory of pseudorandomness.”

The event is free for everyone to attend. Register here

About the Turing Awards

The Turing awards, named after Alan Turing, given every year, are the highest achievement that a computer scientist can earn. And the contributions of each Turing award winner are then, arguably, the most important topics in computer science.

About Turing 100 @ Persistent Lecture Series

This is year 2 of the the Turing 100 @ Persistent lecture series. The series started in 2012 to celebrates the 100th anniversary of Alan Turing’s birth by having a monthly lecture series, and the success of the talk series in year 1 has resulted in the series being continued in 2013. Each lecture is be presented by an eminent personality from the computer science / technology community in India, and covers the work done by one Turing award winner.

The lecture series has featured, or will feature talks on Ted Codd (Relational Databases), Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn (Internet) Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (Unix), Jim Gray, Barbara Liskov, and others. Latest schedule is here

This is a lecture series that any one in the field of computer science must attend. These lectures will cover the fundamentals of computer science, and all of them are very relevant today.

All the slides and videos of all the talks in the last year are available here.

Fees and Registration

The event will be at Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems, SB Road, from 2pm to 5pm on Saturday 25th January.

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Register here

PuneConnect 2013: One of Pune’s biggest tech events – 23 Nov

Events, Featured

PuneConnect 2013, which brings to you the best of Pune’s technology – startups, and established companies – is happening this Saturday, on 23rd November from 9:30am to 1:30pm. Registration is free, but there is limited space, and registration is on a first-come-first-served basis so register now.

What to expect at PuneConnect?\

The event consists of three parts – a demo room, where all the startups will first be demonstrating their products, an exhibition area, where established companies have paid stalls, and an on-stage session with a keynote address, a panel discussion, free time for every one to see the demos, followed by a startup shootout where 4 selected startups will pitch their product to a panel of judges from the industry, angel investors and VCs.

  • 9:30 – 10:00 – Registration
  • 10:00 – 10:30 – Keynote address by Mangesh Kale, MD of PARI Robotics, Pune
  • 10:30 – 11:15 – Panel Discussion: Getting SMACed: How Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud Technologies are reshaping Indian Manufacturing Industry
  • 11:15 – 12:30 – Startup Alley and Product Showcase
  • 12:30 – 1:30 – Startup Shoot-Out
  • 1:30 – 1:45 – Awards Ceremony
  • 1:45 – 4:00 – (Only by invitation) VC Roundtable

Startup Alley is a demo hall featuring Pune’s 20 most promising early stage startups, selected with a lot of difficulty, from 100+ submissions received, and Product Showcase will feature 20 booths by Pune’s more established technology companies. The Startup shoot-out will have 4 of the top startups presenting their pitch on stage to compete for the Pune Connect 2013 “Best of Show” Award.

In addition, you get to interact with the audience – consisting of people from SEAP, NASSCOM, MCCIA, Hinjewadi Industries Association, TiE-Pune, PuneStartups.org, PuneTech, and SME Joinup – pretty much anyone who matters should be there. And VCs and Angels. Don’t miss this event.

(Note: for regular attendees, the show ends at 1:30. There is a lunch + VC Roundtable afterwards, but that is by invitation only, for selected startups. If you’re a startup that’s interested in this, and haven’t yet applied, apply here.)

Startup Showcase PuneConnect on 23 November – Apply Now

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PuneConnect 2013 invites all startups from Pune or nearby areas to apply for a chance to showcase their products at to larger companies in Pune, on 23rd November 2013, at Hyatt (Ista) Pune. This event is free for all participants. If you are unsure of whether this event is appropriate for you or not, please go ahead and apply, and our selection committee will figure out whether you’re a good fit or not.

The idea of PuneConnect is to connect established Pune companies with the innovative startups on their doorstep. The hardest thing for a startup is to find early adopters that give them the credibility and experience that they require, and we believe that Pune’s established base of leading edge companies in Software, IT Services, KPOs and Engineering are the perfect early customers.  We want to make sure that a thousand innovative startups bloom in Pune’s Silicon Valley safe in the knowledge that there is a deep and caring ecosystem close to home to serve as mentors, customers, and as angel investors.  And for all of our established companies, the inflow of new ideas and technologies that these startups bring into our offices help to refresh us, energize us, and to make us even more ready for the global stage.

PuneConnect 2013 builds on the success of PuneConnect 2011 and PuneConnect 2012. See an Overview of PuneConnect 2011 Results and Media Coverage to get an idea of the benefits reaped by the startups selected last year (including getting funded, getting featured on TV, getting invited to national conferences, and newspaper articles.)

Benefits to selected startups include:

  • Exposure to Pune’s top companies, potential customers and potential mentors
  • Exposure to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors who are being invited to the event
  • Press and media coverage before and after the event
  • Winners of the event get automatic entries to other country-level events (e.g. those organized by NASSCOM)

PuneConnect is an initiative of:

SEAP Logo
SEAP (Software Exporters Association of Pune)
PuneStartups Logo
PuneStartups.org (Pune Open Coffee Club)
punetech Logo
PuneTech
tie pune logo
TiE Pune
mccia logo
MCCIA Pune
NASSCOM logo
NASSCOM
HIA Pune Logo
Hinjewadi Industries Association

Turing100 Lecture: Talk on Life & Work of 2008 Turing Award Recipient Barbara Liskov

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In 2008, Barbara Liskov was given the Turning Award for contributions to practical and theoretical foundations of programming language and system design, especially related to data abstraction, fault tolerance, and distributed computing.

Ajay Deshpande, Chief Architect at Persistent Systems will give a talk on the life and work of Barbara Liskov, on 31st August, from 2pm to 5pm at Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent (SB Road).

The event is free for everyone to attend. Register here

About the Turing Awards

The Turing awards, named after Alan Turing, given every year, are the highest achievement that a computer scientist can earn. And the contributions of each Turing award winner are then, arguably, the most important topics in computer science.

About Turing 100 @ Persistent Lecture Series

This is year 2 of the the Turing 100 @ Persistent lecture series. The series started in 2012 to celebrates the 100th anniversary of Alan Turing’s birth by having a monthly lecture series, and the success of the talk series in year 1 has resulted in the series being continued in 2013. Each lecture is be presented by an eminent personality from the computer science / technology community in India, and covers the work done by one Turing award winner.

The lecture series has featured, or will feature talks on Ted Codd (Relational Databases), Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn (Internet) Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (Unix), Jim Gray, Barbara Liskov, and others. Latest schedule is here

This is a lecture series that any one in the field of computer science must attend. These lectures will cover the fundamentals of computer science, and all of them are very relevant today.

All the slides and videos of all the talks in the last year are available here.

Fees and Registration

The event will be at Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems, SB Road, from 2pm to 5pm on Saturday 31 August.

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Register here

Don’t miss tech events: Subscribe to the PuneTech Calendar

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You are probably missing many, many interesting technology events that are happening in Pune. (In spite of the fact that you’re subscribed to PuneTech – because you are not subscribed to the PuneTech calendar)

Every week, there are at least 5-7 technology events in Pune. And they are all listed in the PuneTech Calendar. However, because the number is so high, we don’t post all of them to the PuneTech main page.

The fact that you got this article, means that you are subscribed to the PuneTech main page. However, we only selected events are posted to the PuneTech main page. All others are posted to the PuneTech Calendar, which has a different feed/subscription of its own.

For example, you were probably aware of C. Mohan’s talk on the Global Technology Outlook, and you probably know about the Turing 100 Lecture on Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. However, you are probably not aware of the following events all happening in the next 4 days:

  • A talk on Big Data with Hadoop
  • A Visual Studio Tech Tour by the Pune Microsoft Technologies User Group
  • An MCCIA Pune National conference on Cyber Security, where policy makers and decision makers from the Indian Army, Police, and other relevant Government organizations have been called for interactions with the security/tech community in Pune.
  • In-Product Email Marketing by K. Shashi, founder of Bandhan.com
  • IPMA (Indian Product Manager’s Association) Pune’s Event: 5 Things Every Product Manager should know about Agile
  • 2-day Scrum Gathering India Regional Event for Agile Enthusiasts (Paid)

And a few more.

All you need to do is click here and sign up get email alerts whenever an event is added to the PuneTech Calendar, or if you’re one of the 10 remaining people in the world still using RSS, here is the RSS feed, or you can directly import the calendar.