Company news

Scala IDE 4.1.0 has been released recently with a bit of our help!
We would like to use this occasion to announce that VirtusLab will be officially contributing to the Scala IDE project. We will cooperate with Typesafe, Inc. on development of new releases with a great number of enhancements and features aimed at skyrocketing productivity of Scala developers. We are proud to be part of the team that has undertaken the great effort to build the IDE for Scala Community. Their work has had a great impact on popularity and adoption rate of the Scala language. We will do our best to contribute high quality features to raise the adoption rate to even higher levels.

4.1.0 version includes considerable enhancements to Scala debugger, support for building project in scopes and many more. Building project in scopes improves support for Scala macros. Now macros can be defined, compiled and used in the same project. All what is needed is just putting them in ‘src/macros’ source folder and defining separate output folder for this source folder (e.g. ‘target/macros-classes’).
Details and download links of the 4.1.0 can be found here.

This relocation is a result of continued business growth and an increase in professional staff.

Our new office address is:

Virtus Lab Sp. z o.o.
ul. Szlak 49
31-148 Kraków

Our new office is just minutes away from Galeria Krakowska, Kraków Główny - Main Railway Station and City centre - in the area of Krakow largest and fastest-growing business hub.

Our office number will remain the same: +48 17 778 86 20

Our new and larger office space allows us to add more functions to serve our teams better. Should you have any questions on the relocation, please feel free to contact us.

We thank everyone for their support through the years and with the move.

We are a proud organizer of Sphere.it - a unique & innovative 5-in-1 tech software conference experience. Sphere.it 2019 edition is going to be a way more than a regular IT conference!

Attracting developers, technology enthusiasts and business people from all over the globe, the Sphere.it Conference is becoming the leading Software Tech event in Poland, with around 1000 participants, great workshops and world-class speakers.

The 2018 edition was a screaming success! What to expect this year?

• 5 main tech conferences & 2 mini initiatives
• React, Scala, Cloud, JS, Data, Kotlin and Quantum
• 3 days of presentations
• 2 days of workshops - more info here in --> tickets
• World-class speakers. New ideas. Practical knowledge.
• Over 500 participants to network with

7 TECH CONFERENCES IN ONE

ScalaSphere offers a deep dive into an important topic for every Scala Software Developer – Dev Tools. Our aim is to show how they can facilitate effective development of Scala-based systems, how they are written, and to discuss what could still be improved.

DataSphere covers data-centric systems and the technologies that make them tick. Whether it is data engineering or AI application challenges, they all fit in well.

ReactSphere focuses on Reactive Programming and Reactive System Design. Microservice Architectures, Actors, Messaging Systems, methods for domain analysis – all this and more will be covered during lively talks.

JSSphere puts emphasis on Maintainable JavaScript. New development paradigms and best practices to the frontend will be discussed; from TypeScript, JS Tooling to the most advanced frameworks allowing to build Scalable Architecture.

CloudSphere is focused on Cloud-Native application development, architecture, and tooling.

There's much more to enjoy this year! This year we offer you 2 mini-spheres free of charge:

Kotlin mini-sphere is dedicated to Kotlin ecosystem and supported by Kotlin/Everywhere program – a series of community-driven events focusing on the potential of Kotlin on all platforms.

Quantum mini-sphere focuses on a current perspective on the flourishing field of quantum computing; from theoretical quantum information research to fully practical deployment of quantum computing in production.

THE SPEAKERS

When it comes to people, we are really lucky! Edition 2019 joined already:

Martin Odersky - the inventor of the Scala language, a professor at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a founder of Lightbend. ACM fellow, co-designer of Java generics, and original author of the current javac reference Compiler.

Umit Mert Cakmak - a Manager and Senior Data Scientist in IBM Data Science and AI Elite Team based in the UK. Umit excels at helping clients to solve complex data science problems, from inception to delivery of deployable machine learning and AI pipelines. His research spans across multiple disciplines and he enjoys sharing his insights at conferences, universities and meet-ups.

Alex Lobera - Founder at LeanJS and React GraphQL Academy

Holly Cummins -  the worldwide development practice lead for the IBM Cloud Garage. As part of the Cloud Garage, Holly delivers technology-enabled innovation to clients across a range of industries, from banking to catering to retail to NGOs. She has led projects to count fish, help a blind athlete run ultra-marathons in the desert solo, improve health care for the elderly, and change how city parking works. Holly is also a Java Champion, IBM Q Ambassador, and JavaOne Rock Star. Before joining the IBM Cloud Garage, she was Delivery Lead for the WebSphere Liberty Profile (now Open Liberty). Holly co-authored Manning’s Enterprise OSGi in Action.

Robin Moffatt - a Developer Advocate at Confluent, the company founded by the creators of Apache Kafka, as well as an Oracle ACE Director and Developer Champion. His career has always involved data, from the old worlds of COBOL and DB2, through the worlds of Oracle and Hadoop, and into the current world with Kafka.

Learn more about the speakers at sphere.it/#speakers

WORKSHOPS

Choose from more than 10 different workshops dedicated to various topics crucial to every software developer out there.
Visit sphere.it/workshops to learn more about the variety of workshops offered.

SURROUNDING EVENTS

ScalaSpree - a global initiative to introduce newcomers and veterans alike to open source!

Come meet contributors of well-known open-source Scala projects and learn how you can make your own contribution. If there is any old issue that you want to learn how to fix now is the chance!

ScalaBridge -  aiming at building an inclusive Scala community with introductory programming workshops for underrepresented groups.

It’s a gentle introduction to the world of Scala programming language and programming in general, in which everybody can find a place for themselves. We do not require any previous knowledge of programming, only basic knowledge in the world of computers as well as your own computer. We will try to match the pace of the workshop to each participant as much as possible.

Scala Contributors Summit - an event that brings together active contributors, library authors, maintainers, and Scala User Group/Conference organizers for a day-long in-person event to discuss and exchange their experiences about all things Scala.

The goal of the event is to identify the pain points that prevent the Scala ecosystem to grow in a sustainable way and to propose solutions to them.

Save the date: October 7-9, 2019 in Krakow, Poland.

VirtusLab is proud to sponsor the 2019 Best Master's Thesis Award, an initiative by the Faculty of Computer Science, Electronics, and Telecommunications at AGH University of Science & Technology. This prestigious award promotes high-quality master’s theses that bridge scientific research with practical applications, encouraging students to tackle real-world challenges in the ICT field.

To support this mission, our R&D Department is sponsoring a MacBook Pro 15'' for the author of the most outstanding thesis. This initiative aligns with our commitment to fostering innovation and excellence in the rapidly evolving ICT industry.

Since 2017, Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organizations, and Statista, a renowned research company, have been publishing the FT1000 ranking—a list of the 1,000 fastest-growing companies in Europe. The ranking highlights businesses from various industries that have achieved the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue over a specific period. The 2019 edition evaluated revenue growth from 2014 to 2017.

To be included in the 2019 FT1000 ranking, companies had to meet the following criteria (according to Statista):
✅ Revenue of at least €100,000 in 2014
✅ Revenue of at least €1.5 million in 2017
✅ Independent company (not a subsidiary or branch of another entity)
✅ Headquarters in Europe
✅ Primarily organic growth (internally stimulated)
✅ No share price irregularities in the past 12 months

We are proud to be recognized in the FT1000 ranking for 2019, marking another significant achievement in VirtusLab’s continuous growth. Our #VLteam keeps expanding, driving innovation, and strengthening our position in the technology sector.

Congratulations to all winners & the entire VirtusLab team!

Our summer internship program offers a unique opportunity to learn and practice coding in Scala, ML, Kotlin, Jenkins, and other technologies. Over a three-month period, you'll work alongside Scala Specialists at VirtusLab, gaining hands-on experience in real-world projects.

Who are we looking for?

We’re seeking enthusiastic students who are familiar with at least one programming language (e.g., Scala, Kotlin, Golang, Python, or C++) and eager to gain experience, tackle challenging problems, develop innovative solutions, and have fun at work!

This is a paid internship lasting approximately three months, with flexible start dates to accommodate your schedule.

Get ready for a challenge! Apply now: http://summer.virtuslab.com

Our Jenkins Operator project has officially become part of the Jenkins organization, marking a significant milestone for the open-source community. 

The announcement celebrates the efforts of the #VLTeam, which has been instrumental in developing and maintaining the project.

Jenkins Operator is a Kubernetes-native operator designed to fully manage Jenkins instances on Kubernetes, streamlining deployment and maintenance for users.

As strong advocates for open-source collaboration, #VLTeam remains dedicated to giving back to the community, fostering innovation, and supporting the growth of the Jenkins ecosystem.

There is some good news waiting to be finally announced!

VirtusLab has received a Gazelle of Business – an award granted by Puls Biznesu – and has joined the prestigious group of the most dynamically developing small- and medium-sized companies in Poland. This year’s gala is to be held in Warsaw on March 11th. The prize will be accepted by Rafał Pokrywka on behalf of VirtusLab.

A “Gazelle” is a small- or medium-sized company that thanks to incredibly dynamic growth can successfully compete even with much larger companies. To become a 2018 Gazelle, the company had to fulfill several criteria, listed here: https://www.pb.pl/gazele/kryteria-rankingu/

Nexelem, known for its innovative production management software, has joined forces with VirtusLab. This partnership aims to enhance manufacturing processes with advanced planning tools and integration with systems like SAP, driving cost efficiency and sustainability in production. VirtusLab's commitment to technology innovation and community-driven development bolsters this venture, promising transformative industry solutions for the manufacturing industry.

Sensinum merges with VirtusLab, combining front-end expertise and seasoned business development talent. The integration aims to leverage synergies, accelerate growth, and strengthen VirtusLab's ability to deliver cutting-edge software technology solutions. With an expanded team of 16 new members, VirtusLab continues its mission to build scalable, high-performance solutions tailored to clients' needs.

We started as a small team and have grown over time, hiring many excellent software talents and opening new offices. We have worked on a wide range of projects, sponsored and organized conferences and meetups, and continuously adapted to build a scalable, agile, and fundamentally strong company.

None of this would be possible without our dedicated people. Some have been with us since the very beginning, while others joined later, but all have had a significant impact on business development, delivering the best possible service to customers and improving our day-to-day work. Many employees often go beyond the scope of their duties, and thanks to them, we are constantly evolving!

To show my appreciation, I have decided to introduce a partnership model—one that goes beyond the traditional employer-employee relationship. All partners are equal and, while still involved in their projects, contribute to the strategic growth of the company and are fully aware of the direction we are heading in.

Each partner has the power to initiate and execute ideas based on current needs. This may even involve developing a new business unit or launching new projects. It is a significant commitment, but the reward is a percentage share in the company's total revenue. Personally, I find satisfaction in making things happen—this, in itself, is a reward that can be even more valuable than money, which tends to come and go.

And now, an important part: the group of partners is open, and every VirtusLab team member has the opportunity to join. All current partners were once new employees, so regardless of where one starts, this path is available to everyone working at VirtusLab.

Currently, VirtusLab partners are:

• Jan Paw
• Krzysztof Romanowski
• Michał Pociecha
• Mikołaj Kromka
• Paweł Dolega
• Piotr Kukiełka

Congratulations!

Rafał Pokrywka, CEO