Persistent Systems launches Early Stage Venture Fund. Invests in ustyme

Persistent Systems launches Early Stage Venture Fund. Invests in ustyme

– By Prathamesh Patil

Pune based Persistent Systems has unveiled Persistent Venture Fund, an early-stage investment fund focused on supporting innovation in social, mobile, analytics and cloud computing (SMAC) technologies. The fund is focused on providing early stage companies from around the globe with seed capital for promising technology ventures.

The initial investment recipient is ustyme, a free, video-call app for iPad that creates shared experiences through quality content, like books and games.  ustyme creates the context for spending time together and allows family and friends to read classic tales, such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and “Henny Penny,” and play well known games, like Checkers, Chess and Go Fish, while seeing and interacting with each other through a video-screen.

As a leading global player in the software product development and technology services space, Persistent Systems intends to be a value-added partner to early stage entrepreneurs in its core sectors, investing in companies that have an advantaged solution and by enabling its investee companies to leverage Persistent’s domain expertise and customer reach to benefit the start-up.

“The Persistent Venture Fund enables  innovative companies like ustyme to not only gain from our capital investment but to tap our seasoned engineers who are working with next-generation technologies,” said Dr. Sridhar Jagannathan, Chief Innovation Officer, Persistent Systems, Inc. and Head of the Persistent Innovation Venture Fund. “For Persistent Systems, investing in entrepreneurs who are pioneering development in the areas of our core competency brings benefits to the start-up and to Persistent. We look forward to actively working with our investee companies to enable their success.”

“We are delighted to have Persistent Systems as an invaluable investment partner and a trusted advisor. With the support from Persistent we will be able to augment our resources, expand our capacity and support our strategic international expansion” said Linda Salesky, CEO, ustyme.

Why Endpoint Data Protection and Backup Firm Druva is Attracting Investor Attention

Why Endpoint Data Protection and Backup Firm Druva is Attracting Investor Attention

By Prathamesh Patil

Druva recently closed $25 million in Series C funding in support of its inSync platform, an integrated suite of endpoint data protection and governance solutions that currently safeguards corporate information assets on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones in 76 countries. The round adding to $17 million raised in Series A and B installments in 2010 and 2011 – includes follow-on investments from Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners as well as a substantial first-time investment from Tenaya Capital. Tom Banahan from Tenaya will be joining the board of Druva.

Druva’s inSync addresses shifting enterprise data protection requirements spurred by mobilization, free online file sharing services, changing work habits, and the consumerization of IT. The suite uniquely integrates automated endpoint backup, IT-managed file sharing, encryption and other data loss prevention capabilities, and a centralized audit trail of all data content and movement for governance, compliance, eDiscovery and forensics. It also creates a master record of all endpoint data that enables end users to access any file remotely, plus easy content recovery in the event of device loss or theft.

Driven by that broad range of features, Druva’s customer base has expanded from 1,500 to 2,100 in the last year with a corresponding jump from 1 million to 1.7 million in the number of endpoints under protection. The company has also expanded its workforce from 124 at the end of 2012 to an expected 200 by the end of 2013, and introduced a major inSync upgrade and two new private cloud deployment options since January.

The new funding will underwrite continued R&D, expanded global sales and marketing, and expansion of Druva’s cloud infrastructure to support new deployments by large enterprises that require the elasticity, multi-tenancy and flexibility of the cloud along with the security, compliance and cost advantages of hosting IT solutions behind the company firewall.

“With the proliferation of mobile devices and the loss of security and accountability in today’s ‘post-PC’ world, every organization today is facing the need to change the way they protect and govern data,” said Jaspreet Singh, Druva founder and CEO. “The size of this latest funding round is a direct result of our unified strategy for solving these problems, our success to date in attracting customers ranging from UC Berkeley to Sephora and NASA, and our roadmap for expanding the inSync platform to become an essential component of the IT infrastructure.”

“Risk management is one of the major responsibilities of IT departments, but most companies have lagged in modifying their policies to manage the risks of mobile computing,” said Shailendra Singh, Managing Director at Sequoia Capital. “Druva was one of the first companies to recognize and address that gap, continues to innovate, and is positioned to transform the way that organizations shield themselves from data and compliance breaches.”