Developer productivity tools startup Raycast raises $2.7M from Accel

Published October 29, 2020

Workplace SaaS tools for teams have seen rocket ship growth in the past several years, and that adoption has given rise to a host of software tools geared toward improving individual productivity. Many of the startups behind these tools see building a cult following among individual users as the best way to set themselves up for later enterprise-wide success.

Raycast is a developer-focused productivity tool that aims to be the quickest way to get common tasks done. Today, it’s launching into public beta and sharing with TechCrunch that the team has raised new funding from Accel months after graduating from Y Combinator.

The company has closed a $2.7 million seed round led by Accel, with participation from YC, Jeff Morris Jr.’s Chapter One fund, as well as angel investors Charlie Cheever, Calvin French-Owen and Manik Gupta .

The desktop software takes a note from peers like Superhuman and Command E, allowing users to quickly pull up and modify data with keyboard shortcuts. Users can easily create and re-modify issues in Jira, merge pull requests in GitHub and find documents. The software is very much a developer-focused version of Apple’s Spotlight search that aims to help software engineers navigate with a single tool all the parts of their job that aren’t development work.

Image via Raycast.

Like plenty of workplace tools startups, one of the keys for Raycast is building out a network of extensions that can encompass a user’s workflow. For now, the software supports integrations from Asana, Jira, Zoom, Linear, G Suite, Calendar, GitHub and Reminders, alongside core functionality that can help manage system settings and a calculator that can handle complex math problems. As the startup launches out of public beta, they’re looking to double down on extensions and are rolling out a developer program for early access to their API.

The Mac-only software is free while in public beta, but the company does plan on charging a monthly subscription for the service eventually, though they aren’t quite ready to talk about pricing yet.

Raycast’s team is interested in appealing to individual users for now, but might eventually expand to becoming a teams-level enterprise product that could help onboard new employees faster by quickly orienting them with their office’s software suite, but that’s all a bit down the road, the team says.

“We’re staying focused on single-player mode for a while,” CEO Thomas Paul Mann tells TechCrunch.

Instabug raises $5M Series A round led by Accel, as mobile app usage surges

Published May 4, 2020

There are some startups that behave like sprinters, and others that run a marathon. I came across Instabug when I was in Cairo in 2013. Born during the chaotic era of the Arab Spring, this plucky startup managed to make it to TechCrunch Disrupt, then Y Combinator in 2016, then a $1.7 million in seed round led by Accel Partners. Originally part of the Egyptian accelerator Flat6Labs Cairo, they raised $300,000 from angel investors in 2013.

Today they announced a $5 million Series A round, once again led by Accel . Other angel investors joining include Amr Awadallah, co-founder of Cloudera, and Jim Payne, founder and CEO of MoPub, both of whom have invested previously.

Instabug provides mobile developers with real-time insights throughout the app life cycle, with its bug and feedback reporting, secure crash reporting and in-app surveys. All the more important these days, given so many people are relying on apps during their pandemic lockdowns.

Omar Gabr, co-founder and CEO of Instabug, said in a statement: “We’ve been working with Accel since 2016 and we’re very excited to continue our partnership. We grew 120% in revenues in the last 12 months, adding dozens of Enterprise customers. We’ve always been running a disciplined business, we’re almost profitable for some time now. This is what made our fundraising fast in the middle of all the current events. Our fundraising conversations with Accel started after the pandemic outbreak.”

Instabug says that since the COVID-19 outbreak, it has seen a “massive surge” in usage, which has grown 45% since January. It’s also designed to streamline the communication between QA and developers, which is very relevant now, as many are working remotely.

Some 28 of the top 100 apps on the App Store use Instabug. Several competitors have been acquired, including Crashlytics (by Google) and HockeyApp (by Microsoft).

Given that the startup still has most of its team in Egypt, this is once again a great win for the MENA region.