• Applause

  Participated · Series F · Sep 2016

  Applause is an in-the-wild digital testing company that helps brands test and improve digital experiences across web, mobile, IoT, wearables and brick-and-mortar. It combines crowdtesting, test automation and a global community of professional testers to validate products across devices, operating systems, carriers and locations. Applause serves thousands of companies, including Amazon, Google, HBO, BMW, Ralph Lauren and Concur, and has tested more than 100,000 new builds for 3,000 companies. The company reports usability and design feedback as its second-largest revenue producer, maintains a community of more than 250,000 testers and a workforce of 300+ employees across multiple cities. Applause plans to expand its in-the-wild digital testing services globally, grow its usability feedback offerings, and formally launch and scale its digital research services. The company launched in August 2008, is headquartered near Boston, MA, and has raised more than $115 million to date.

• Wyng

  Participated · Series C · Jun 2014

  Wyng offers a privacy-first personalization platform built from the ground up on a zero-party data (ZPD) API and privacy-by-design principles. Its product portfolio includes Wyng Microexperiences to source ZPD via product finders, quizzes, surveys and promotions; Wyng Profiles to unify ZPD into customer profiles accessible via a secure embedded portal; and Wyng Moments, which uses ZPD and machine learning to insert personalized content, products and offers at key engagement moments. The platform integrates ZPD with existing CRM, CDP and ESP systems and can ingest content from any source including product catalogs and user-generated social content. Wyng positions ZPD as consent-based personal context data (needs, preferences, interests) that customers proactively share to improve their experience. The company reports a profitable customer base of more than 250 brands and enterprises, including Cargill, Church & Dwight, Moët Hennessy and Univision. To speed onboarding of existing customers and attract new names to the platform, Wyng raised $2M from existing investors in early April 2021. Offerpop provides a SaaS platform that enables marketers to run campaigns, manage user-generated content, capture consumer data and drive conversions across digital channels. Its customers include global brands such as L’Oreal, Comedy Central and Lilly Pulitzer, and it is a strategic partner to roughly 2,000 enterprise and mid-market brands. The platform interacts with millions of consumers daily and manages tens of millions of pieces of user-generated content. Over the past 12 months the company has nearly tripled revenue, opened an EMEA headquarters in London and more than doubled headcount. Offerpop is available on the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud HubExchange and is a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer and a Twitter Certified Product. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate product innovation and expand operations in the United States and Europe and to establish new offices globally. Offerpop is a New York-based social marketing software company that provides a platform for Facebook and Twitter enabling brands to run engagement campaigns, optimize social content, and capture actionable data to convert fans into customers. The company is a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer and serves over 40,000 customers, including Amazon, Pepsi, MTV, American Express, Etsy, Time Inc., and American Eagle Outfitters. Co-founded by Wendell Lansford (CEO), Prakash Mishra (CTO) and Mark Cooper (CMO), Offerpop targets marketers seeking to turn social audiences into customers. The company raised $5.7M in a Series B and intends to use the proceeds to further develop its platform. Offerpop has raised $10M in total to date. In conjunction with the financing, Robert Belau of Bulger Capital Partners joined the board.

• uTest

  Participated · Series E · Jan 2014

  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.

No current team members are available.