Cisco and DFJ keeps an eye on iCore Software

July 9, 2009 - PRLog -- - For several years leading early-stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco hold  Business Plan Competition for university and business school students. Thanks to Cisco Telepresents videoconferencing system  the Standard Biz Plan Competition became global.

After reviewing the business plans of more than 1,000 students start-up companies, venture firm DFJ announced the 16 finalists in their first Global Competition.  The most of the presenters are based in the U.S., with the others located in Israel, China, Russia, India and Brazil.  On of the finalist was iCore Software. Their business plan is based on technology that provides OS-level virtualization software enabling multiple secure high-performance virtual machines on a Microsoft Windows.

A few days ago, DFJ and CISCO  organized the finale. Sixteen finalist teams across the globe presented business plans from their local CISCO TelePresence suite to a panel of San Jose-based judges composed of venture capitalists from DFJ and its Global Network Funds and executives from Cisco's Corporate Development team. DFJ has awarded a seed round of $250,000 to Husk Power Systems Inc., a company that turns rice husks into energy and is already powering 27 small towns in rural India.

In addition to the financial investment awarded to the winner, both DFJ and Cisco will continue to work with the winner and other finalists in leading the next wave of disruptive technologies by providing mentorship and professional assessments regarding their submissions.

"Clearly global innovation doesn't stop for recessions", said Tim Draper, managing director, DFJ. "These promising candidates are reminding us that there are pioneering companies out there, even in difficult times, and we hope that one of these teams creates the next Skype, Google, Facebook, Baidu or Cisco. This competition fosters a culture of entrepreneurship that has a lasting impact, and its benefits are felt not just by the winning team but by all participants. We look forward to continuing meaningful ties with all of these young entrepreneurs in the future. With this competition, we certainly witnessed that entrepreneurship has no borders, and we look forward to expanding it to even more universities worldwide next year. Deciding on just one winner was difficult, especially with this caliber of candidates. We are excited to have chosen Husk Power Systems, which is especially remarkable for its alternative power technology, and we can't wait to see how this team becomes the next game changer."

"This competition demonstrates the tremendous power of collaboration through Cisco TelePresence," said Hilton Romanski, vice president of corporate development for Cisco. "We were able to bring together 16 talented teams from 15 separate schools in six different countries, all in the course of a normal business day. It was exciting to hear from this diverse and visionary group of global entrepreneurs and to learn about their business plans."

The presenting members of iCore Software team were Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia 2010 Ph.D graduates Artem Prokopenko and Nikita Parfenov. The team started their company in Russia in 2007.

"We're honored to be selected as a finalists, especially considering the level of competition," said Artem Prokopenko, chief executive officer, iCore Software.” We have productive discussed our OS virtualization technology and market strategy with one of the leaders venture firm.” http://icoresoftware.com/

iCore Software markets and develops OS virtualization solutions. To test basic functionality of their  virtualization company released a special product iCore Virtual Accounts last year. With small PR action iCore has got a lot of beta testers. The most of users are system administrators, developers, it managers. Company plans to finish private beta testing of improved iCore Virtual Accounts in July. Innovations affected the organization of the working with file system, virtual memory. iCore Software is going to announce new products for SMB next month. http://icoresoftware.com/

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About iCore Software
iCore Software is a virtual computing company. iCore develops and markets container-based virtualization solution built on the Windows desktop, bringing the benefits of virtualization home and SMB. For more information, please go to http://icoresoftware.com/