This article was published on April 17, 2013

Finland’s Bitbar nabs $3m from Qualcomm and others to bolster its mobile app testing platform


Finland’s Bitbar nabs $3m from Qualcomm and others to bolster its mobile app testing platform

Bitbar, the Finnish startup behind cloud-based mobile app testing service Testdroid, has secured $3 million in funding from DFJ Esprit, Qualcomm Ventures, Creathor Venture, Finnvera Venture Capital and TEKES.

The company offers mobile software development and testing solutions that allow app developers and publishers, including major ones like Wooga, LinkedIn, Flipboard, SwiftKey, Pinterest and Evernote, to test their software for mobile platforms.

Despite what its name suggests, the company supports not only Android but also iOS and HTML5, and Bitbar says it will use the fresh capital to expand its mobile developer tools beyond said platforms and start offering users more than simply testing tools.

At present, Bitbar lets developers and publishers test their apps across 200+ devices, including smartphones, tablet computers and even cameras.

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Bitbar CEO Marko Kaasila says:

“We are witnessing the renaissance of the mobile developer. We have seen more than 40 percent month-to-month growth on new users and more than 50 percent growth in monthly revenues.

This financing round will allow us to grow our platform even further and provide our customers with a fully integrated development, testing and deployment experience for all relevant mobile platforms.”

Kaasila did not provide base numbers for its users and revenue growth, which renders his growth assertion hopelessly void, but it’s not hard to spot the growing need for its services, and there are some big names using its cloud platform for their mobile apps already.

Aside from the clients named above, Bitbar also works with the likes of Facebook, Google, LivingSocial, SoundCloud, PayPal, BMW and eBay.

Image credit: Thinkstock

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