Sofy, a Seattle startup that offers developers and QA professionals a code-free platform to test their mobile apps, has raised $7.75 million in new funding.
The money will be used to expand the platform’s capabilities to serve web and API functions, an addition to its current ability to test mobile apps, CEO and co-founder Sayed Hamid told GeekWire in an email. He added that the company will also grow its sales and marketing team, doubling the number of employees by the end of the year.
The 35-person startup was co-founded in 2016 by Hamid and Hyder Ali, who both spent most of their careers in engineering leadership roles at Microsoft. They are joined by Usman Zubair, another former Microsoft engineer who has founded a number of software companies.
Sofy is currently being used by 45 customers, including Microsoft and Alight, with a total user base of 15,000. The startup quadrupled in size last year and is on track to repeat that growth by the end of this year.
Sofy’s patented technology can run diagnostics on both iOS and Android apps. Developers and QA professionals can test their application’s performance, create automation, review performance results and diagnose visual quality and network issues, Hamid said. They can do all this without writing a single line of code.
“Codeless test automation is transforming the $4 billion mobile app testing market and bringing tremendous benefits to the software development and deployment process,” James Newell, a partner at Voyager Capital who is joining, said in a statement the board of directors of Sofy.
Sofy will have to compete with a growing number of startups chasing this specific market, including well-funded players like Browerstack and Applause, along with newcomers including Autify and Waldo.
“While our competitors are focused on creating test automation, Sofy has taken a holistic view of the QA process,” said Hamid. The startup offers more than 10 different specialized mobile app QA tools that can increase a company’s testing efficiency, he added.
Sofy has raised a total of $9.6 million to date. The current round was led by Voyager Capital, with additional investment from PSL Ventures, GTMFund, Revolution and others. Julie Sandler, managing director at PSL Ventures, will also join the startup’s board of directors as part of the funding round.
