UTest, a Southborough, MA-based startup that crowdsources testing for software applications, said today that it has raised a $17 million Series D financing, at a company valuation that more than doubled since uTest’s last funding round 15 months ago.
Baltimore, MD-based QuestMark Partners led the investment, which also included all existing uTest investors: Scale Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners, Egan-Managed Capital, and Mesco. UTest declined to reveal the exact valuation the company raised its last two venture rounds at.
The company got its start offering quality assurance testing services to enterprise customers, and has since rolled out services for smaller software startups, as well as platforms for testing software security, usability, load, and localization. It’s seen a surge of customers using its service for mobile app testing, said uTest chief marketing officer Matt Johnston. “Mobile is growing the fastest, growing faster than desktop and Web,” he says. “It’s absolutely white hot. And it’s not just for startups.”
He says the uTest model works well for mobile applications because it “enables you to test across locations, jumping tower to tower.”
“Even big companies can’t do that in house,” he says.
The company plans to use the new cash to staff up in its Boston-area, Silicon Valley, and New York offices, as well as expand to other tech hubs, like Seattle, where it will open an office later this month. It is also creating a suite of tools that it hopes will help developers as they are building their applications, rather than testing them after the fact.
Johnston’s says uTest’s growth and ability to raise private money could make it a good candidate for an initial public offering down the line. But the company’s not worried about that just yet, he says. “We’re focused on serving customers—that’s ultimately the way you create delighted, evangelical customers that are telling the world about you.”
