StackMob Raises $7.5M to Power Mobile Apps

StackMob, which provides backend and operations tools for mobile app makers, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round led by Trinity Ventures that included Harrison Metal and Baseline Ventures.

The San Francisco-based company is currently in private beta (iOS only for now), with early stage developers and start-ups as its first users. It has more than 1,000 people still waiting to get access, said CEO Ty Amell in a phone interview last week.

StackMob services include API creation and management, analytics, social integration, messaging and monetization. So, for instance, an app creator could identify–using StackMob–which of its users are sharing the most content.

While it’s currently all free, eventually some StackMob features will cost money.

StackMob is one of the many infrastructure services companies that are themselves built on top of cloud hosting–examples include Twilio, SimpleGeo, SendGrid and Urban Airship. Their pitch is to help developers avoid reinventing the wheel to add basic but difficult features to their apps, like SMS or location or emails or notifications.

But does it make sense for an app creator to set up a backend that’s entirely dedicated to mobile, rather than one that’s integrated across mobile and Web?

Amell argued yes: “Mobile has specific questions,” he said. “Like, how do I engage someone when they’re not using the app? There’s enough value that we can provide specifically to mobile.”