A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – MOBILE DEVTOOLS
- Invision, web and mobile application prototyping platform, raises $55M in Series D funding round led by ICONIQ Capital. Link
- Capriza, provides enterprise mobility platform for mobile app development, raises $23M in Series C funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Link
- Apptimize, A/B testing for mobile apps, raises $12.4M in Series B funding led by US Venture Partners. Link
- Modo Labs, mobile application middle-ware platform, raises $10M in Series B funding led by Education Growth Partners. Link
- Appknox, mobile app security platform, raises $643K in seed funding led by SeedPlus. Link
- Applop, provides DIY mobile app development platform, raised $250K seed funding from GHV Accelerator. Link
- MPS acquires magplus, provider of digital publishing platform and DIY mobile app development platform. Link
- Google acquires LaunchKit, that provides platform to build, manage and release apps for product managers and developers. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
MechDome (2016, San Mateo) – Provides cross-platform android run-time that allows android apps to run unmodified on iOS platforms.
LEADER BOARD – MOBILE DEVTOOLS
FullStack
Kony (2007, Austin, $113M) – Mobile application development platform provider to build apps. Backed by SoftBank Capital, IVP, Telstra Ventures, Georgian Partners, Delta-v Capital and Hamilton Lane.
Appcelerator (2006, Mountain View, $103M, Acq.) – SaaS platform for enterprises to create, deliver and analyse their entire mobile application portfolio. Backed by Rembrandt VC, UGVP, Storm Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Mayfield Fund, Translink Capital, Relay Ventures, EDB Investments, Accel Partners, eBay, Redhat. Acquired by Axway in 2016.
Xamarin (2011, SF, $82M, Acq.) – Enables developers to build and test native apps for iOS, android, Mac and Windows using a single C# code base. Backed by Lead Edge Capital, IVP, Charles River Ventures, Ignition Partners and Floodgate. Acquired by Microsoft.
mBaaS (Mobile Backend as a Service)
Kinvey (2010, Boston, $18M) – Backend as a service for developers and enterprises to setup and operate a cloud back-end for mobile, tablet and web apps. Backed by Verizon Ventures, NTT Docomo Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Atlas Ventures.
Framework
Phonegap (2008, Vancouver, Acq.) – Mobile application development framework, which allows users to write an app with HTML, CSS and Javascript, and deploy it to a range of mobile devices. Acquired by Adobe in 2013.
IonicFramework (2012, Madison) – Open-source front-end mobile app framework that helps build hybrid apps using HTML5 and AngularJS. Part of Ionic (2012, Madison, $12.2M).
MADP (Mobile Application Development Platform)
Outsystems (2001, Lisbon, $62M) – Outsystems provides a rapid application development and delivery platform. Backed by North Bridge VP, ES Ventures, Portugal Ventures and PME Investimentos.
Capriza (2010, Palo Alto, $73.5M) – Capriza provides a platform to convert existing web applications into mobile optimized version without coding or integrations. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, Tenaya Capital, Harmony Partners, Allen & Company.
App Prototyping
Invision apps (2012, NY, $134M) – Platform to allow developers to create fully interactive prototypes of web and mobile applications. Backed by Accel Partners, Tiger Global, FirstMark Capital.
iRise(1997, California, $36M) – Drag and drop platform to create app prototypes. Backed by Morgan Stanley, Gold Hill Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, Deutsche Bank.
DIY Frontend
Duda (2009, Palo Alto, $19M) – DIY site builder for SMB’s. Backed by Pitango VC, Primera Capital, SGVC.
Appmachine (2011, Heerenveen, $15M) – Platform to build native apps for iPhone and Android using content from existing websites and templates. Backed by Endurance International Group.
Testing
Perfecto Mobile (2006, Woburn, $83M) – Provides a cloud based testing and monitoring solution for mobile applications using real devices. Backed by TCV, FTV Capital, Carmel Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, Vertex Ventures.
Applause (2007, Framingham, $81M) – Provides in-the-wild testing services that span the entire software development life cycle. Backed by Goldman Sachs, QuestMark Partners, Scale VP, Longworth VP, Egan-Managed Capital and Mesco Ltd.
Soasta (2006, Mountain View, $75M) – Builds software products for testing and monitoring web sites and mobile apps in the cloud. Backed by Canaan Partners, Formative Ventures, Pelion VP, Macquarie Capital and ROTH Capital.
Crash Reporting
Bugsnag (2012, SF, $9M) – Cloud based crash detection platform for web and mobile application. Backed by Matrix Partners and Benchmark Capital.
Crashlytics (2011, Cambridge, $6M, Acq.) – Provides an iOS and Android Crash Reporting tool. Backed by Baseline Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, Common Angels. Acquired by Twitter in 2013.
Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
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