A little-known startup born out of the University of Illinois has built technology that identifies problems in a company's software, and it's helping some of the biggest players in aerospace, automotive and blockchain industries with their code.
Runtime Verification, based in Urbana, has developed tools to improve the safety and reliability of software systems. Its technology can automatically detect bugs that are lurking in a company's software, and identify problems before a program crashes.
Runtime's customers include a handful of high-profile clients---such as Boeing, NASA, Toyota and the National Science Foundation---who use the startup to make sure their code is error free. For these types of companies, if their software fails, the stakes are higher than, say, a shopping app or a dating website. Detecting problems as soon as possible helps machines run better and keeps people inside those machines safer.
Founded in 2011, Runtime has been bootstrapped to date, having grown only on revenue from its business contracts, said CEO Grigore Rosu, who's also a U of I professor.
"We didn’t need any venture investments," Rosu said. "Those contracts gave us enough funding to set up our operations and pay for everything we needed."
Runtime has grown to a team of 30 full-time employees, many of which have PhDs from the University of Illinois. The company also has a small office in Romania.
A significant part of the startup's business today is around helping blockchain companies---specifically, making sure that "smart contracts" built on the blockchain run as they're expected. Rosu and his team developed The K Framework, which helps make sure smart contracts work as planned and aren’t vulnerable to attack. Some of Runtime's blockchain clients include Ethereum, the Ethereum Community Fund and Maker.
Runtime has a version of its tech that companies can license and use on their desktops to automatically analyze their software, or the startup can run the analysis and provide feedback to the companies themselves. The University of Illinois also licenses Runtime's tech.
Rosu said he expects blockchain to remain a big part of Runtime's business going forward, as well as other industries that benefit from software analysis.
"The need for correctness is immense," he said.
