An RPA startup called Mesmer launched from stealth mode last week focused on bringing the technology to mobile software developers. As part if its launch, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company announced it has netted $15 million in Series A funding from Intel Capital and True Ventures.
Mesmer is another example of startups serving specific business niches in a nascent RPA industry. A press release announcing the company’s emergence from stealth noted that there are significant opportunities to automate processes during mobile app development. Developers spend up to 40 percent of their time manually testing apps to ensure an excellent customer experience. According to Waheed Qureshi, Mesmer’s co-founder and CEO, the task is tedious, and automation usually requires hiring hard-to-find skilled software engineers. RPA, however, can accomplish in a little more than a half hour what usually takes developers up to 10 days.
“Customer experience testing is a universal pain point for developers, and Mesmer has been able to demonstrate a clear ROI to a diverse and growing base of enterprise customers, all obtained with no marketing or sales team,” said Nick Washburn, senior managing director of Intel Capital. “Using artificial intelligence for this task is disruptive, and we look forward to working with the team to address this growing need in the industry.”