The future of programming is Scala
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Typesafe, a company created just a year ago at EPFL and headquartered in the Science Park, has raised $14 million to commercialize a new programming language called Scala.
Scala is a programming language that was developed by EPFL professor Martin Odersky. Because it is Java-compatible, programmers and developers are likely to massively adopt it, particularly when the internet is involved. Its concise syntax makes it possible to reduce the number of lines of code by half. The principal investor in the $14 million raised is the company Greylock.
Founded in 1965, Greylock currently manages a capital of more than $2 billion in investments, and has already participated in the development of more than 300 companies. The venture capital firm had already invested in the creation of Typesafe in 2011. Greylock has supported more than 125 startups, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Dropbox.
Scala is open-source, and programmers who participated in its development come from all over the world – although EPFL holds the copyright. Scala combines two well-established programming approaches – “object-oriented,” the industry favorite, and “functional programming,” whose adherents are primarily in the academic world. Functional programming is particularly effective for distributing jobs among several processors working simultaneously.
Other investors include: Shasta Ventures with Juniper Networks (Junos Innovation Fund), François Stieger (former executive with Verisign, Broadvision, and Oracle).