Press release -
Testbirds receives investment in the millions
Munich, 18/02/2016 – Testbirds, one of the world’s leading service providers of innovative software testing solutions has recently received an investment in the amount of two million euros. The IT service provider was able to secure the venture capital company EXTOREL by the successful entrepreneur Falk F. Strascheg and the worldwide operating venture capitalist b-to-v Partners as new investors. In addition, the acclaimed French VC Company Seventure Partners, who previously invested in Testbirds in 2014, have once again joined the investment round, maintaining their position as primary investor. The acquired capital will be mainly used for extending the service portfolio and expanding to new target markets.
“We are very proud of having been able to convince EXTOREL and b-to-v, two of the most established VC companies in Germany, to invest in our business model. Together with our primary investor Seventure Partners, this has allowed us to continue our plans for growth and to position Testbirds as a leading provider of innovative software testing solutions”, explains Philipp Benkler, founder and managing director of Testbirds. The company was founded in 2011 and works with large scale clients such as Audi, Allianz, Deutsche Post, Henkel and Western Union. Apart from crowdtesting, the IT service provider offers cloud based services for testing a variety of software to its clients, such as BirdFlight™, a beta app distribution platform, or the test infrastructure solution, TestChameleon™. “Thanks to our international crowd of over 100,000 registered testers and our innovative technologies, we support companies in sustainably enhancing the quality of their websites and apps. In today’s oversaturated market, only user-friendly and defect-free software has a chance at long term success and surpassing competition”, adds Georg Hansbauer, another founder and managing director of Testbirds.
“Alongside the astounding rate of digitalization our world is experiencing, the demand for technologies and solutions for software optimization is continuously increasing. The market has enormous growth potential and Testbirds is well equipped for the future with a service portfolio that focuses on innovation”, says Falk F. Strascheg, founding member of the Venture Capital Company EXTOREL, as he explains the motivation behind their recent investment. Benedikt Kronberger, the Principal responsible for investing at b-to-v agrees, “There is no way around extensive software testing in all industries when looking for quality, usability and economic success. Testbirds has shown huge potential with their plans for further expansion and the extension of their testing services, which has convinced us to invest in them.”
In spring, 2014, Testbirds was able to acquire an investment in the amount of 2.1 millions of euros, which has been used to stimulate expansion in the European market, develop new technology and grow its team. In addition to their headquarters in Munich, the company now has offices in the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden as well as franchise partners in Hungary and Slovakia and sales partners in Italy and North America. “Testbirds has continually grown over the last years of operation and positioned itself in Europe as pioneers in crowdtesting. The business numbers are very promising and we are glad to accompany their further developments as primary investors”, explains Dr. Wolfgang Krause, the partner responsible at Seventure Germany, about the reinvestment from the French Venture Capitalists.
The amount of two million euros will be used by Testbirds to:
- Enhance existing services and add new technologies and products to its portfolio
- Expand worldwide and open opportunities in new target markets
- Increase staff and build teams in new countries.
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Topics
- Science, technology
Categories
- investments
- cloud technology
- crowdtesting
- software testing
About Testbirds
Testbirds was founded in 2011 by Philipp Benkler, Georg Hansbauer and Markus Steinhauser. With over 60 employees and offices in Munich, Amsterdam, London and Stockholm, franchise partners in Hungary and Slovakia as well as sales partners in Italy and Northern America the enterprise is one of the biggest providers of crowdsourced software testing.
With over 100,000 testers registered worldwide, Testbirds enhances software such as websites and apps under real world conditions with over 250,000 devices represented on its platform. Their aim is to enhance the user-friendliness and functionality of all software and device combinations. Thanks to their innovative approach to testing, Testbirds has been repeatedly acknowledged, by for example, winning the start-up competition, “IKT-Innovativ” from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy or receiving the Best of Mo-bile Award and the IT Innovation Award. The enterprise is a member of BITKOM and the Microsoft BizSpark-Plus program. From 01/06/2012 to 31/05/2013, Testbirds was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Tech-nology and Economics.
About EXTOREL
The EXTOREL GmbH focuses on equity engagements in the areas of ICT, software, laser technology, electro technology, automation, measurement & control and medical engineering. Since 1987, EXTOREL has en-gaged in more than 100 direct investments and in more than 30 VC or private equity funds. EXTOREL is directed by Mathias Lindermeir and Falk F. Strascheg, probably the best-known VC in Germany, who is a past president of the European Venture Capital Association (EVCA). EXTOREL covers various stages of an enter-prise – from seed stage to growth stage – and places investments starting at € 500.000. Besides close assis-tance and coaching, supported companies benefit from membership in an international network.
About b-to-v
b-to-v Partners AG is a venture capital company with offices located in St. Gallen and Berlin, as well as one of the leading networks of entrepreneurial private investors in Europe. b-to-v combines the specialist expertise and experience of entrepreneurs in t heir network with their own team’s expertise in venture capital. Through this approach to investment, b-to-v has set the goal of achieving long-term added value for the companies in its portfolio and the entrepreneurs investing in them. At the core of b-to-v’s philosophy lies this concept of joint investing and the pleasure of providing mutual financial, practical and personal support from one entrepreneur to another.
About Seventure
Since 1997, Seventure, as an active partner of young but fast-growing companies, has been investing in innovative French, German and European companies with a focus on information technology and life scienc-es. Seventure partners is one of the key players in Europe’s venture capital scene, managing over 500 million euros in assets and investing in over 120 companies while running offices in Paris and Munich.
