Visual A/B testing platform Appiterate raises $500K seed funding from SAIF Partners, others

Delhi- and San Francisco-based DSYN Technologies Pvt Ltd, which provides a native mobile analytics and A/B testing platform for app developers and enterprises under the brand name Appiterate, has secured $500,000 (Rs 3 crore) in seed funding from SAIF Partners, with participation from a group of individuals, including Greg Badros, former VP (product & engineering) at Facebook and Prashant Malik, former tech lead at Facebook and co-creator of Apache Cassandra.

The capital would be used primarily for team-building purposes. "Currently, we have 12 people working with us, most of who come from the best colleges like IITs and IIMs. Now, we are hiring more people and so a large portion of the capital will be used for this purpose. A part of the funding will also go towards our marketing initiatives," Appiterate co-founder and CEO Tanuj Mendiratta told Techcircle.in.

Appiterate was founded in January last year by Mendiratta, along with Anuj Bhargva (chief creative officer), Mayank Kumar (CTO) and Varun Sharma (COO). An MBA from IIM Calcutta, Mendiratta earlier founded a marketplace for bed and breakfasts (B&Bs) and guesthouses. Bhargva holds a master's degree in Graphic Design and had previously run a design studio focusing on the mobile and digital space. Kumar studied Computer Science from IIT Delhi and then worked with Microsoft before starting on his entrepreneurial journey with a product aimed at connecting users to email and social networking via feature phones. Sharma holds an MBA from IIM Calcutta and had earlier worked at Nokia and two mobile technology companies.

Appiterate is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) A/B testing platform for native mobile apps. It allows app publishers to A/B test and iteratively optimise the designs (UX) and functionality of their mobile apps to improve in-app purchases, user engagement and conversion metrics. It also allows app publishers to run tests based on user segments and see real-time conversion metrics.

"The four co-founders make a great team with rich experience in the mobile domain. Their previous work has been impeccable and we have great faith in their ability to execute on ideas. The market is hotting up for mobile optimisation and they have all the right ingredients—solid pedigree, practical industry insights, speedy execution—to make it big," said Mukul Singhal, principal, SAIF Partners.

Traction and revenue model

The company has already worked with global majors, including Vodafone, Viacom, Groupon, P&G, MTV, Samsung, Microsoft, Mahindra and Zomato. "We are targeting the global market, with a big focus on the US and Europe. Since we started out of India, we will also focus on the Indian clients initially," noted Mendiratta.

Appiterate banks on a SaaS revenue model. The pricing starts at $50 per month for developers and it can go upwards of $2,000 per month for enterprise customers, depending on their requirements. The startup also offers a free plan with limited functionality.

Competition

Mendiratta said that there are many players such as Wingify and Optimizely operating in the A/B testing space. "However, as a company in the mobile A/B testing space, we are directly competing with the firms such as Apptimize, Vessel.io, Swrve and LeanPlum."

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)