Ex-Googlers Raise $10M to automate code testing with Machine Learning

After selling their previous startup Stackdriver to Google in 2014 and working for the tech giant, Izzy Azeri and Dan Belcher have spent the last couple of years cooking up their next startup with a focus on how to make code testing better for developers.

The company, called mabl, came swinging out of the gates on Wednesday with a $10 million Series A round from local venture capital firm CRV and Menlo Park-based Amplify Partners.

In an interview with BostInno, Azeri and Belcher said they decided to start the new company after investors encouraged them to do so while they were still product managers at Google. Once the two had left Google, they talked to hundreds of software teams to understand the major challenges they were having. One challenge that stuck out had to do with how new software code was tested.

As developers have moved to the method of continuous code delivery, the testing tools have not been able to keep up with rapid changes to the software, sometimes resulting in tests that break and the need to script in small tweaks, Belcher said.

"You basically have to be an engineer" to ensure things always move smoothly, he added.

With mabl, which is now available for free in beta, the startup aims to take the uncertainty and extra work out of testing code by automating the process and removing the need for scripting or infrastructure maintenance. Through the use of machine learning and other methods, mabl figures out how the software works by taking screenshots of the app and analyzing code, among other things, and then looks out for changes when new code is introduced.

"Mabl, in many cases, can auto-heal tests based on experience working across multiple applications," Azeri said.

The result is that software teams don't have to spend as much time playing around with testing, allowing them to focus more on actual product development. Two local companies, Codeship and Runkeeper which have already found satisfaction with mabl.

"Nobody on the team has to worry about testing; everyone knows if there's an issue, mabl will tell us, then we'll fix it and move on," Moritz Plassnig, co-founder and CEO of Codeship, said in a statement.

Mabl has 20 employees working out of its office at 141 Tremont St.

Source: AmericanInno

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