Runtime Verification goes multinational by opening Bucharest based subsidiary

Posted on November 27th, 2018 by Patrick MacKay

Earlier this Fall, Runtime Verification opened a subsidiary in Bucharest, Romania. The new company, Runtime Verification SRL, is located in the heart of the capital city and already staffed by seven persons. The operation’s focus will be two-fold; support the development of the new K in Haskell, and deliver smart contract verification audits for clients building products and services for the Ethereum community and beyond. The founding team consists of Traian Serbanuta (co-inventor of the K-framework), Virgil Serbanuta, Denis Bogdanas, Vladimir Ciobanu, Denisa Diaconescu, Ana Pantilie, and Andrei Vacaru.

So, how did this come about? Runtime Verification was founded in 2011 and is located in Urbana, Illinois, the home of the University of Illinois. The University of Illinois is home to one of the best engineering colleges in the world, which includes a top-notch computer science department. Given its “near campus” location, Runtime is able to work with and hire top-notch computer scientists. Other universities across the globe are home to strong computer science programs as well. Two such universities are the University of Bucharest and Bucharest Polytechnic. The math and computer science programs at these universities are strong in formal methods, a prerequisite of sorts for the work we do. Moreover, the founder of Runtime Verification studied at the University of Bucharest and maintains relationships with faculty and leadership at both universities. In short, there is a big opportunity to replicate what we have in Urbana in Bucharest.

Like I mentioned above, the opening of the Romanian subsidiary will enable Runtime Verification to take on more business in the blockchain space where there is demand for our services and expertise. Moreover, we will do so from the heart of Europe, the epicenter of all things blockchain. Finally, an additional benefit of opening a subsidiary in Europe is that we will be able to partner with both the public and private sectors to pursue research and development grant opportunities with the European Union.

Runtime Verification offices