V.i. Labs
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| Private | |
| Industry | |
| Founded | 2002 (Products shipped 2006) |
| Headquarters | Waltham, Massachusetts, USA |
Key people | |
| Products | |
| Website | http://www.vilabs.com |
V.i. Labs (officially “V.i. Laboratories, Inc.”) is a privately held software intelligence company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
Founded in 2002 by Dr. David Pensak, V.i. Labs offers software providers solutions to identify, track, and create actionable intelligence on the use and misuse of their software to increase revenue. Its CodeArmor® platform is used by leading software providers to recover revenue lost to unlicensed software use, gain compliant customers and globally reduce the pirated use of their software applications. Customers identified more than $3 billion in revenue recovery opportunities in 2013 alone, and are adding an average of 10 to 25 percent additional revenue to their top lines.
Its anti-piracy and software license compliance products are designed to track software use, protect valuable intellectual property found in high-value and business-critical software applications (including products used for Electronic Design Automation (EDA), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and Computer-Aided Design (CAD)) and recover revenue lost to the use of unlicensed software and piracy.
Products
CodeArmor Intelligence is V.i. Labs' product platform that enables software providers to capture the use and misuse of their software applications. The CodeArmor platform enables software providers to incorporate data collection, tracking, and detection of misuse capabilities directly into their applications as well as own, manage, and act on the resulting intelligence within a flexible SaaS infrastructure.
Software Usage Intelligence
CodeArmor Intelligence[1][2] (August 2008) allows software providers to build threat detection and reporting functions into their applications, centrally collect and manage data corresponding to the threats, and centrally report on infringements for future action.
The data is available to multiple parties within the software provider’s organization, such as legal, product management, sales and other compliance representatives through the product’s integration with Salesforce.com.
Alternatively, the Salesforce.com APIs and partner infrastructure allow information to be directly integrated with other internal CRM systems such as Siebel, SAP, and Oracle.
In January 2009, V.i. Labs announced CodeArmor Intelligence support for Red Hat Linux.[3]
In September 2010, the company introduced CodeArmor Intelligence 3.0[4] with improvements to scalability for ISVs with high piracy rates and enhanced reporting capabilities through the company’s partnership with Salesforce.com to help ISVs prioritize leads.
In May, 2013, the company introduced CodeArmor Control[5] that enables software vendors to automate an appropriate and targeted in-application response to adopters of unlicensed software.
Partnerships
Salesforce.com V.i. Labs is a member of Salesforce.com’s ISV Application Partner Program, enabling the company to bundle, provision and centrally maintain a software intelligence dashboard for ISVs. The partnership allows for the integration of various data sets into standalone and existing salesforce.com instances for greater information sharing throughout an ISVs organization.
Microsoft V.i. Labs is a member of the Microsoft Windows Embedded Partner program, Microsoft Empower ISV Program, Visual Studio Industry Partners (VSIP) program, and participates in Microsoft Technology Adoption Programs.
Reprise Software V.i. Labs and Reprise Software have layered CodeArmor software protection with Reprise License Management (RLM) to address binary patching threats faced by ISVs.
Industry Affiliations
Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA provides global services in government relations, business development, corporate education and intellectual property protection to more than 1000 leading software and information companies.
Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC) The EDA Consortium is an international association of companies that provide tools and services that enable engineers to create the world's electronic products. EDA is the critical technology used to design electronics for the communications, computer, space technology, medical and industrial equipment and consumer electronics markets among others.
Federation Against Software Theft / Investors in Software (FAST IiS) The Federation Against Software Theft is a not-for-profit organization, formed in 1984 with the aim of eliminating copyright infringement of software in the UK. FAST was an early anti-piracy organization to work to protect the copyrights of software publishers. Initially concentrating on lobbying parliament to revise copyright law, FAST also prosecutes organizations and individuals for copyright infringement on behalf of its members.
V.i. Laboratories is a member of the Federation's Security Products and Services and Software Publishers groups.
The company also sponsors the Software Piracy Initiatives Forum (SPIF) on LinkedIn, which was created for discussion and professional networking between ISV employees involved in analyzing and addressing the impact of overt piracy and license overuse.
Accolades
In May 2010, V.i. Laboratories' CodeArmor Platform was selected by the Software and Information Industry Association as a winner of its CODiE Award for "Best DRM Solution."[6]
Funding
- Series A – Rockford Capital (June 2006)
- Series B – Ascent Venture Partners, Core Capital Partners – $8 million (November 2007)
- Expanded Series B – Ascent Venture Partners, Core Capital Partners – $4 million (October 2008)[7]
References
- ↑ eWeek "Tracking the Crackers." Prince, B (2008, 11, 14). Retrieved 03, 20, 2009.
- ↑ "Vi Labs smartens up anti-piracy." Feinman, J (2008, 09, 01), SD Times. Retrieved 03, 20, 2009.
- ↑ iTWire "Linux ISVs gain tool to uncover lost license revenue." Williams, D (2009, 02, 28). Retrieved 03, 20, 2009.
- ↑ InformationWeek "Software Piracy Tracker Integrates with Salesforce.com." Schwartz, M (2010, 09, 150. Retrieved 09, 17, 20100.
- ↑
- ↑ http://www.siia.net/codies/2010/winners.asp#software
- ↑ Boston Business Journal "Anti-piracy software company lands $4 million in VC." Noyes, J (2008, 10, 17). Retrieved 03, 20, 2009.