Mobot has launched its QA-as-a-service platform and announced $12.5 million in Series A funding from Cota Capital, with participation from Heavybit, Uncorrelated Ventures, and others.
Mobot’s QA-as-a-Service testing platform uses physical robots to battle test mobile applications. Mobile users today interact with numerous physical devices, notifications, integrations, operating systems, and thousands of other points outside developer control. Emulators and other virtual QA environments are unable to test the formidable number of edge cases that cause breakdowns in performance and functionality. The $40 billion software testing market leverages low-cost labor to fill in the gaps, but at a high cost and with variable testing accuracy.
Mobot claims to solve this problem with a QA-as-a-service platform that uses state-of-the-art mechanical robots to automate testing of repetitive, human-like functions in a real-world setting. Challenging use cases that Mobot should be able to automate tests for include:
* Complex hardware and software interaction, such as multi-device interactions for instant messaging and ride hailing or Bluetooth/WiFi-enabled hardware connections.
* Streaming data stability, particularly push notifications which are increasing in complexity and dependencies, such as Apple’s new Live Activities feature for iOS 16.
* Backwards compatibility testing, like memory leaks triggered by third-party software on older iOS devices and camera testing across Android versions and manufacturers.
* Critical action stability, such as revenue-generating activities like in-app purchases, subscription management, Apple/Google Pay, and payments API integration; user login, new account creation and multifactor authentication (including SMS and biometrics); and app behavior when backgrounded or interrupted by a phone call.