As the world of apps continues to get ever-more crowded, another app analytics startup has picked up investment to help app developers figure out what is working, and what is not. Paris, France-based Capptain has raised $1.5 million from Russian VC fund Runa Capital.
The investment, says Runa, will be used to help Capptain, a cloud-based platform, expand its geographical footprint in Europe, Russia and the U.S. Past funding in the startup was not disclosed but TechCrunch understands that it was a seed round led by angels and totaling around $500,000.
In some respects, given how many app analytic platforms there are now — there is Flurry, Kontagent, Localytics, Bango and so many others — one wonders if there will be some consolidation ahead.
Like others, Capptain provides real-time monitoring services to chart how apps are downloaded and used. Also like others, it adds a level of marketing services into the mix as well, with the ability to push promotional campaigns for the apps through the platform, and to pull information in from users — for example from surveys.
What is perhaps most notable about Capptain is the range of platforms it covers, from iOS, Android, Html5, Web OS, Blackberry/RIM and WP7 down through to Samsung’s Smart TV service, and the subsequent range of devices, from mobile handsets and tablets through to Internet-enabled TVs. The company also says that it is better at visualizing its results and offering them in reports that are can be customized.
And even with a number of analytics companies out there, there is a large market to serve: not only are apps growing in number, but they are in value, too: the world-wide mobile apps market is forecast to be worth some $25 billion by 2015 by researchers at MarketsandMarkets. ABI Research is even more bullish: it predicts revenues of $46 billion by 2016.
Capptain is developed by UBIKOD, which has been around since 2008 and focuses on software-as-a-service for enterprises. As part of the investment, Dmitry Chikhachev, the managing partner of Runa Capital, will become a board member of the parent company.
Although based in Russia, Runa Capital has invested in several companies outside the country focused on cloud services. They include enterprise-focused companies ThinkGrid, BigTime Software and StopTheHacker. In February 2012, Runa launched an accelerator in partnership with virtualization provider Parallels aimed at cloud startups.
