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Applause (formerly uTest) allows suitability testing of apps for any device, including Smartphones, and smart home devices
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Doron Reuveni, CEO and co-founder of Applause
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Doron Reuveni, CEO and co-founder of Applause, which tests an apps compatibility for a wide range of devices, in either an Android, iPad, HTML 5 or a variety of other platforms has succeeded in raising an additional $43 million in its Series E financing round.
The Series E funding was led by merchant bankers, Goldman Sachs, with existing investors Egan-Managed Capital, Longworth Venture Partners, Mesco, QuestMark Partners and Scale Venture Partners, also participating in the round, which brings total financing for the company to date to over $80 million.
Applause was founded under the name of UTest, in 2007 in Boston, Massachusetts by Reuveni and Roy Solomon, who is Vice President in charge of product management. As well as their offices in Boston, Applause also maintains a development center in Herzliya, Israel. The company officially changed their name from UTest to Applause in December 2013.
With a client base ranging from customers such as Amazon.com, Box Inc., Google Inc., Inc., Rolex S.A., as well as some key players in the auto manufacturing industry, Applause also enjoys a close working relationship with no less than 100, 000 freelance professional apps testers throughout the world, through “crowdsourcing”.
Irrespective of their size or their location, Applause’s customer’s number around 2, 500, with each one of them, according to Doron Reuveni, able to take advantage of the opportunity to test their apps “on real devices in the hands of real consumers in actual markets, rather than in a device laboratory or other limited setting. “
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On releasing news of the latest funding round, Reuveni explained that Applause plans to use the recent capital injection to expand their footprint in Europe, while at the same time initiating an intensive marketing campaign to increase brand awareness for Applause, as well as creating known app life cycle management tools specially developed for to suit the needs of coders, engineers as well as digital marketers.
Applause also plans to set aside some of the funding for acquisitions, having already purchased Polish company Apphance in the summer of 2012, paying just over $1 million. , According to Reuveni, Applause expects to take over at least two companies in the apps sector during 2014.
According to a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs, with this latest round of funding allied to their ambitious expansion plans, Applause are on the proper tracks for reaching their goal to becoming the first crowdsourcing company to file an IPO, probably within the next two to three years
Since its founding in 2007, uTest has shown remarkable growth that would inspire Applause from even the toughest of audiences, while expanding the number of people it employs from 11 to more than 120 employees, with turnover expanding five fold in the the company’s last financial year of 2012/ 2013.
In 2012, uTest finished in eight place on 2013 Forbes’ list of the Most Promising Companies in America list as well as winning the State of Massachusetts TLC most promising Private Company of the Year for 2014
Doron Reuveni also finished as a finalist in the Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2012.
Doron Reuveni is a holder of a Batchelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Information Systems Engineering from the Technion University, Israel.
After completing his army service and university degree, Reuveni held a number of management positions within the Israeli Ministry of Defense, before joining the Florida based security software developers Enigma Software in 1994, where he was initially responsible for managing their IT and Customer Support Departments, eventually heading their Systems Engineering and Architecture groups.
Reuveni left Enigma Software to found Re.D Consulting, advising a number of enterprise companies on raising capital, market strategies, helping to provide company direction, as well as developing product roadmaps and providing advice on technology development.
Apart from his busy work schedule, Doron finds the time for keep his fitness levels up, having taken part in the Boston Marathon every year for the past nine years.
