Southborough Software Tester Expects Stratospheric Growth
Suppose a software company makes a hot new mobile application and wants to launch it all around the world.
The mobile phone market is expansive - with hundreds of devices, service plans and other variables. Between the iPhone to Android devices, to all different types of phones and service plans all over the world, just how does a company know if the app or software it has created will work on all of those different platforms? All of that software needs to be tested.
That's where Southborough-based venture capital-backed startup firm uTest comes in.
The company has a 50,000-person community in 180 countries that will test the software a business wants to bring to market. Testers will provide feedback about how the software works, what the problems are and what needs to be fixed.
Investors seem excited about the idea. Founded in 2007, uTest recently secured its fourth round of venture capital financing, this installment worth $17 million. That brings total company funding to $37 million.
With the new money, company co-founder and CEO Doron Reuveni hopes to double the size of the 90-person company within a year and expand into Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago. Within two to three years he wants to take the company uTest public.
Growth Trajectory
Central to uTest's operations are a massive community of testers who try and critique products developed by the firm's customers.
Reuveni explained that a company will hire uTest to sample the product, and then uTest will pay testers based on the quality of the feedback they provide. If a tester finds a bug in the system, they can get paid more, for example. The company also targets its testers based on the circumstances of the customer. For example, if the client has a new social media app it plans to launch in America, uTest will find social media users in the United States - the most likely users of the product.
The business model has worked. Because the firm is still private it does not release its revenue or earnings figures, but revenues have increased 250 percent year over year since 2008 and headcounts have doubled each year in that time as well.
The company has plans for even more growth. Reuveni wants to scale up the company while business is hot.
"When you're growing from a top line revenue at 250 percent a year, you run as much as you can and capture as much of the market share as you can," he said. "Being aggressive is the right model for us."
As part of the new funding, Reuveni is also hoping to purchase and acquire firms that can expand the company's service offerings and geographic presence. Eventually, the plan is to take the company public through an initial public offering.
In the meantime, however, the company is expecting to continue executing on its rapid growth, which could see uTest increase its presence in Southborough from 65 to 140 people within the next year.
WBJ Web Partners
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