iBuildApp, a California-based startup with Russian roots, has raised $525,000 from Eugene Miller and Constantine Filin to further develop its mobile app building technology and expand internationally.
The iBuildApp platform allows anyone to build mobile applications for iPhone and Android without any programming skills. Templates are available for different industries, from banks and restaurants to universities, schools and churches. The app can be customized with additional texts, RSS-feeds, images, audio, video and more.
The platform can be used free of charge. However, advertising and push functions are available on a paid basis. Customers may also purchase widgets and designs in the iBuildApp Marketplace. This freemium model has not made the startup profitable yet, but iBuildApp expects to grow to $1.6 million in revenue this year and reach $10 million by 2015.
Over the past six months online registrations have jumped from 600 to 2,500 new users per day, the startup claims, with a 1% free to paid user conversion rate.
Evgeny Medvednikov, director of CIS business development for iBuildApp, told East-West Digital News – without providing details on funding rounds – that since its inception in 2010 the company has raised almost $1 million in total.
The startup has focused so far on the US and European markets. “The latest capital injection will help us to continue growing in Russia and Asia and to expand in Latin America,” Medvednikov added.
iBuildApp was founded by Rafael Soultanov, a Russian programmer with 10 years experience in IT consulting for global companies. Now based in Silicon Valley, the company employs 22 people. Its platform is used by a variety of organizations, including Liverpool Football Club, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the University of California at Los Angeles, Suffolk and Emory universities, Nielsen Media Research and Russia’s Sberbank.
A number of other US startups have been founded by Russians. Among the most prominent ones are global game developer Nival, ERP vendor Acumatica, Java application hosting platform Jelastic – and of course Evernote. In addition, a growing number of purely US startups are being backed by Russian investors.
