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After Selling to IBM, Entrepreneur Grabs UltraLink

A local company that survived the dot-com crash with a shift to more outsourcing now is part of another company.

Brick, N.J.-based Secova Inc. recently said it combined with Costa Mesa-based UltraLink Inc., which had raised more than $50 million in funding.

Both companies specialize in human resources and benefits management outsourcing.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The combined company now is based in Costa Mesa and targets midsize businesses.

The new company is led by Venkat Tadanki, cofounder and chief executive of Secova. Tadanki lived in Orange County before the deal.

Secova and UltraLink each employ about 90 people.

UltraLink once was a highflier in the online world, employing about 300 people,including about 150 in OC,at the start of the decade.

The company was looking to make it easier for human resources managers to shop for healthcare, enroll workers and streamline administration via the Internet. It also offered general outsourcing services then.

In 2000, UltraLink landed $41 million of its $53 million in funding from New York-based Capital Z Partners and others.

A month later, UltraLink started a health maintenance organization Internet exchange for AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and its plans in California and Texas. The e-commerce program helped American Airlines save 2% on its premiums, according to UltraLink.

Health plans that took part in UltraLink’s test included Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., now part of Minnesota’s UnitedHealth Group Inc.

Plan representatives downloaded bid documents, completed information and uploaded documents back through an UltraLink Web site for consideration by American Airlines.

UltraLink hoped to buck the dot-com crash by offering real savings to real companies.

It did, but survived by focusing more on general human resources outsourcing, while still using its technology background to automate some processes.

Tadanki said the combined company offers a more rounded package of services. Secova brings more background in payroll services, while UltraLink brings more expertise in consulting with customers to find ways to save money on benefits.

The company seeks “best shore” services, picking between India and the U.S. to keep costs low and service up.

Tadanki said he hopes to grow sales at 30% to 40% a year.

He cofounded Daksh eServices, a process outsourcing company that was sold to IBM Corp. in 2004 for around $150 million, according to BusinessWeek. It had about 6,500 employees, mostly in Asia.

He said Secova, which he started at the time of the sale of the company, has about $8 million in funding.

Eventually, the company could have an initial public offering, but he has no firm plans now.


Fast Pitch

Got a minute?

At a recent gathering of venture capitalists and other investors, Southern California companies pitched themselves in the hopes of eventually getting some funding.

Here’s the unusual part: They only had one minute to make their case.

Of the 12 finalists, seven were from Orange County. Three of the four winners were from OC.

The local event at the Anaheim Marriott, sponsored by the Tech Coast Angels, has been growing every year, said John Harbison, vice president of the angel investor group in OC. This year the event had about 340 people, up from 250 last year.

The winners aren’t awarded money on the spot. They’re given a chance to make their case for funding with investors after the event. That door has opened to funding rounds for companies in past years, he said.

Irvine-based Calibra Corp. was the winner of “best investment opportunity.” It helps companies with “viral marketing”,the same kind of marketing that helped launch Skype Technologies SA, the Web-based phone company.

San Clemente-based MaMoCa Inc. took the “best presentation” honor. It said it has found a cost-efficient way to produce 3-D content for video games and movies.

Another company wasn’t so techie but took the “people’s choice award.” Aliso Viejo-based Etch-It Inc. lets customers use their fingernails to “etch” their name in a cup. The company’s already in 900 stores, including those of Albertson’s Inc.


Store More

This is huge.

Irvine-based Zetera Corp. recently helped the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tie together storage devices that provide 1.4 petabytes of storage.

To put that in context, that’s enough storage to contain a high-resolution digital photo of every person in the world. A petabyte is 1,000 terabytes, itself 1,000 gigabytes.

The MIT lab needs the storage for video and audio data that’s part of a research project designed to better understand early childhood cognitive development.

The media lab was based on Zetera’s technology that enables hard drives to connect to storage networks.

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