Blackstorm, the US-based operator of a mobile app distribution platform, has raised $33.5m in funding from investors including e-commerce group Rakuten, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
The company’s other investors include venture capital firms Highland Capital Partners and Alsop Louie Partners, as well as undisclosed executives from virtual reality headset developer Oculus and additional angel investors.
Blackstorm owns an app store called the Neo Store that allows developers to distribute content beyond the Apple-run App Store and Android-focused Google Play store, and an integrated development environment that will help developers publish on multiple platforms.
The idea is that as it grows, developers will be able to use Blackstorm to help deliver content across messenger platforms and mobile browsers rather than having to rely on the huge official app stores.
Ernestine Fu, partner at Alsop Louie, told TechCrunch: “If you think about the market right now, everyone is using apps right now, all apps are built on iOS and Android, and the distribution is controlled by Apple and Google.
“Giant companies like Uber and Lyft have been entirely built entirely on these app stores. If you think about what is next, where are we actually going to have new distribution platforms that can exist in the form of one messenger, apps within app environments, [the internet of things], mobile browsers, the goal of this company is powering the infrastructure to trade and distribute software to all the post app-store platforms.”