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Posts Tagged ‘Application Servers’

ActiveTrak: A Hybrid Service To Track Stolen or Lost Laptops

Portland has a fast emerging tech culture that is seeing a number of new technology startups.

Today, $225,000 is on the table for one of the year’s biggest events: The Oregon Entrepreneur Network’s annual Angel Oregon.

One of the major contenders is ActiveTrak, which tracks lost or stolen devices. The company is launching a SaaS service in the next three months for the enterprise.

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You may know the company for its consumer service: GadgetTrak. The software is installed on laptops or mobile devices. It uses WiFi to track the device. For mobile devices, the service may use GPS. If that’s not available, it will triangulate using WiFi hotspots or cell towers. The software will also take a picture of the person who stole it.

The software has been used to track stolen computers that has helped break up criminal rings. Recently, Portland schools had a number of laptops stolen that had the software installed.The software tracked the devices, leading to arrests and recovery of the laptops.

CEO Ken Westin said the enterprise service will be available as SaaS or on-premise offering. One of its pilot accounts is with a major chemical company.

People will install the software on the device, which syncs with the application in the cloud. Mobile devices will allow for over the air updates such as with iPhone or Android applications.

Security is obviously a priority. ActiveTrak will store its databases on dedicated servers. The application layer will reside in the cloud. The on-premise service will reside entirely As demand increases, it will increase or decrease its number of application servers as demand peaks and ebbs.

Westin said they are trying to avoid issues with propagating data across a number of servers. Data, in Westin’s view, is easier to secure in one place.

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Voxeo raises $9M for voice communications business

Voxeo said today it has raised $9 million in funding for its voice communications business.

The Orlando, Fla.-based company is focused on making open platforms based on what it calls “unlocked communications,” such as voice-over-Internet-protocol on mobile platforms or unified messaging and voice communications. It essentially helps companies run their phone systems using modern web-based technologies. The investors include North Atlantic Capital and the Florida Growth Fund. The company will use the money for acquisitions and other expansions.

In the past 14 months, Voxeo has acquired three companies. This is the first investment made by the Florida Growth Fund, a $250 million partnership between the State Board of Administration of Florida and private equity firm Hamilton Lane, which has $88 billion under management.

The company’s products include a self-service enterprise platform that lets companies automate their customer and employee communications via phone, text message, instant message, Twitter and more. It also has application servers for enterprises, enterprise VoIP platforms. The company has more than 100,000 developers that use its platforms to create products for 45,000 companies.

Voxeo was founded in 1999 and has 140 employees. Rivals include Genesys, Convergys/Intervoice, and Microsoft’s Tellme subsidiary. The company has seen triple-digit revenue growth for five years and has been profitable for 22 quarters.

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