SOASTA Raises $30 Million For Service That Uses The Cloud To Test Apps
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SOASTA has raised $30 million in Series E funding for its cloud platform that helps developers test web and mobile apps. New investors, Macquarie Capital and ROTH Capital, joined Canaan Partners, Formative Ventures and Pelion Venture Partners in the round. SOASTA has now raised $63 million. The company last raised $11 million in December, 2011.
SOASTA has three primary platforms that it markets:
- CloudTest: A platform for testing web and mobile apps. The service can be installed in the cloud or on-premise. The primary value comes from testing the performance and function of apps when deployed at scale.
- Touchtest: Designed for mobile apps, the service tests the user interface and the internal behavior of the app. It is designed to test across a gamut of possible users. According to the SOASTA web site, TouchTest captures the start and end points of each gesture, but also the journey between and the speed with which the gesture is performed.
- mPulse: This service gives administrators a visual view into how apps are performing on users smartphones across an organization.
SOASTA represents the next generation of testing services, following companies like Mercury Interactive that had its success with testing client/server apps.
The company competes with the larger enterprise providers such as HP and IBM. But this is also a market with dozens and dozens of competitors. Companies like uTest do in-the-wild testing of apps. Apps are also getting increasingly complex, requiring new testing methods. Then there are the users, who are becoming ever more fickle. They will turn away if an app is slow. Add it all up and it’s apparent this market is just opening up, requiring more sophisticated testing and new methods for keeping mobile apps at the standard that users demand.
For deeper insights into the performance testing market, Suraj Sundarrajan has an excellent blog. Well worth the read for understanding the dynamics of application testing.
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