There’s a prominent new software company headquartered in Beverly, MA. Until now, I had always associated the seaside town with its great old theaters, museums, and having a great white shark brought into the harbor in the mid-1990s (random, I know). From now on, I’ll think of software. There are already quite a few tech firms there, of course, including Envista, SiOnyx, Eliza, Searchandise Commerce, and even Microsoft (at least as of late).
The new Beverly firm is called SmartBear Software, and it was formed in a merger of three companies: Automated QA, Pragmatic Software, and SmartBear. Automated QA was already in Beverly; the others were based elsewhere in the country. Each of the individual companies has about 10 years of experience behind it. The merged firm focuses on making specialized tools for software developers and testers at both small and large companies. Its main competitive advantage seems to be that the tools are fast, cost-effective, and easy to use.
Mass High Tech reported today that SmartBear was formed in a private equity roll-up by New York-based Insight Venture Partners, has 130 employees total, and is making not quite $25 million in annual revenue. SmartBear’s CEO, Boston-area tech executive Joe Krivickas, signed on to lead the merged company early this year, according to the report. I’ve checked these facts with a company spokesman, who adds that SmartBear has about 30 employees in Beverly and hopes to recruit more talent from New Hampshire (and elsewhere).
Krivickas, a former exec with Fast Search & Transfer, Segue Software, and Bluestone Software, said in a company statement: “Unlike bloated, heavy-weight quality assurance and development suites that have crushed the life out of both small and large development teams, our community of 75,000 developers and testers has seen great value in our tools that are simple to try and deploy, and that easily scale to the needs of enterprise users.”
