ThinkStock PhotosBengaluru: BrowserStack, the Mumbai-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, has completed a cash and stock deal to acquire Percy, a San Francisco Bay Area-based company, for an undisclosed sum. Percy, the five-year-old company, specialised in automating visual testing for applications, therefore adding newer capabilities to BrowserStack’s product suites, which largely targets the developer market.
The deal also represented a significant milestone for the growing Indian product tech SaaS sector, with BrowserStack joining an elite set of Indian companies to acquire a Silicon Valley-based company. The nature of the deal is deemed to be a “product, technology and customer acquisition”, along with the personnel that follow. The acquisition, the company said, would move it closer to its “vision of becoming the testing infrastructure of the internet.”
Ritesh Arora, co-founder and chief executive officer of BrowserStack told ET, “We are the largest player in the testing space globally and are constantly expanding our product lines. There is a growing need from software teams for visual testing, and the market has now reached maturity. The adoption has been phenomenal, and we believe the timing is right. An acquisition helps us in saving time and go to market faster.” He also confirmed that as BrowserStack was constantly expanding its product lines, it would be “looking at more acquisitions over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Visual testing, in simple terms, is the automated process of detecting and reviewing visual changes in a website. It helps compare what a website looks like to what it is supposed to look like, and helps spot visual bugs that may have crept in with a new release.
Percy is considered to be the leading platform in the space. Its 1000+ clientele includes leading technology companies like Google, Basecamp and Shopify. “Automation allows us to use algorithms to quickly match older and newer versions of the app/website, which helps in increasing the speed and efficiency of the website,” Arora added. BrowserStack competes with San Francisco-based Sauce Labs and Minneapolis-based Perfecto.
Founded in 2011 by Arora and Nakul Aggarwal (also the chief technology officer), BrowserStack has emerged as a leading global SaaS company, powering over two million tests on a daily basis. Its clientele, which is north of 25000, includes Microsoft, Twitter, Barclays and Expedia, among others. In January 2018, seven years after it was founded as a bootstrapped startup, the company secured $50 million in its Series A funding round led by Accel Partners — by both its India and US-based funds.
“We have always been profitable, and we like to keep it that way. The fundraise helped us scale the organisation, and of course, it opened new doors for us globally,” Arora said while adding, that its investors did play a role in the Percy acquisition, by helping them “evaluate the business.”
The deal also represented a significant milestone for the growing Indian product tech SaaS sector, with BrowserStack joining an elite set of Indian companies to acquire a Silicon Valley-based company. The nature of the deal is deemed to be a “product, technology and customer acquisition”, along with the personnel that follow. The acquisition, the company said, would move it closer to its “vision of becoming the testing infrastructure of the internet.”
Ritesh Arora, co-founder and chief executive officer of BrowserStack told ET, “We are the largest player in the testing space globally and are constantly expanding our product lines. There is a growing need from software teams for visual testing, and the market has now reached maturity. The adoption has been phenomenal, and we believe the timing is right. An acquisition helps us in saving time and go to market faster.” He also confirmed that as BrowserStack was constantly expanding its product lines, it would be “looking at more acquisitions over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Visual testing, in simple terms, is the automated process of detecting and reviewing visual changes in a website. It helps compare what a website looks like to what it is supposed to look like, and helps spot visual bugs that may have crept in with a new release.
Percy is considered to be the leading platform in the space. Its 1000+ clientele includes leading technology companies like Google, Basecamp and Shopify. “Automation allows us to use algorithms to quickly match older and newer versions of the app/website, which helps in increasing the speed and efficiency of the website,” Arora added. BrowserStack competes with San Francisco-based Sauce Labs and Minneapolis-based Perfecto.
Founded in 2011 by Arora and Nakul Aggarwal (also the chief technology officer), BrowserStack has emerged as a leading global SaaS company, powering over two million tests on a daily basis. Its clientele, which is north of 25000, includes Microsoft, Twitter, Barclays and Expedia, among others. In January 2018, seven years after it was founded as a bootstrapped startup, the company secured $50 million in its Series A funding round led by Accel Partners — by both its India and US-based funds.
“We have always been profitable, and we like to keep it that way. The fundraise helped us scale the organisation, and of course, it opened new doors for us globally,” Arora said while adding, that its investors did play a role in the Percy acquisition, by helping them “evaluate the business.”
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