uTest, rebranding its main product as Applause, provides in-the-wild app testing through a large community of testers. It pairs that testing capability with app store analytics and proprietary tools, positioning itself as a dominant player in app quality. The company plans to expand its in-the-wild testing services, target major brands, grow distribution channels, and add offerings such as training, certifications, test tool reviews, career advice, job boards and events. Management says the funding will enable broader services and tools to deliver 360° app quality. With the new capital it also intends to ramp up M&A and pursue roll-up opportunities in the app-testing market. The company is Boston-based and has funding-to-date of more than $80 million. uTest provides in-the-wild crowd-sourced testing services across the full development lifecycle for web, desktop, and mobile applications, including functional, security, localization, and usability testing. The company leverages a community of more than 45,000 testers across 180 countries to test apps on real devices under real-world conditions. Its customers include global brands such as Google, Microsoft, Groupon, AOL and the BBC. uTest plans to use new capital to launch tools to aid developers and to open additional U.S. offices in Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas. The company also said part of the funding will be used for mergers and acquisitions. Founded in 2007, uTest has secured more than $37 million since inception. uTest operates an on-demand software QA marketplace that connects customers with a vetted community of 30,000+ professional testers across more than 160 countries. Customers specify testing requirements and uTest handpicks testing teams based on location, language, OS, browser, mobile device and carrier. Testers are paid based on the number and type of bugs they find, with market pricing for bug finds that fluctuates by demand and remaining bugs. The company offers functional testing and has recently launched usability testing and load testing services. uTest plans to use new funding to expand its tester base and move into additional service categories. The company said the latest round produced a significant increase in its valuation and brought total funding to $20 million. uTest operates a software‑as‑a‑service platform that lets companies assemble teams of testers and pay per bug found or useful feedback. The platform positions itself as an alternative to traditional QA outsourcers and freelance marketplaces by offering crowd‑sourced testing teams. uTest reports a community of almost 12,000 software professionals across 144 countries. Its customers include both cash‑conscious startups and larger enterprises; the only named large customer is Constant Contact. The company plans to expand its services into a larger portion of the product cycle and into mobile and usability testing. Financially, uTest completed a $5 million second round and had raised $2.3 million in a first round the prior year. uTest operates a web-based, on-demand QA platform that manages complete testing cycles and connects companies with a community of testers. The platform provides test-case management, selection of target testers by profile and environment, real-time bug reporting, release-maturity statistics, QA coverage and market-readiness metrics. It supports integrations with Bugzilla, Jira and FogBugs and plans to expand support over time. uTest positions its marketplace as an oDesk-like environment where testers are paid on a Pay-per-Bug basis while companies use the management platform for free. The company is actively recruiting testers globally — citing markets such as India, China, Russia, Bulgaria and Estonia — ahead of an official launch expected in early 2008. uTest raised $1.7M to bring the marketplace to market and scale operations.

Total raised

$80M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Series E

Latest activity

Jan 2014