As mobile usage across the world increases Instabug, the Cairo-based mobile phone debugging software startup has raised $5 million Series A round, once again led by former investor Accel.

“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,” Omar Gabr, co-founder and CEO of Instabug, said in a statement.

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Here Is All You Need To Know

• Also participating in this round are angel investors including Amr Awadallah, co-founder of Cloudera, and Jim Payne, founder and CEO of MoPub, both of whom have invested previously.
• Born during the chaotic era of the Arab Spring, Instabug 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.
• Instabug plans to use the investment to accelerate their plans, double down on their vision, and grow even faster. With the funding, Instabug would be launching different new products in the next few months.
• This investment brings the startup’s total funding to date to $7 million.

Why The Investors Invested

Previous investor Accel is known for investing in profitable, or nearly profitable companies. 

“We seek to understand entrepreneurs as individuals, appreciate their originality and play to their strengths. Because greatness doesn’t have a stereotype. From the earliest days through all phases of growth, it’s our responsibility to support unique founders with unique insights as they take the seeds of promise and grow them into amazing, enduring companies,” the VC noted on its website.

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According to General Partner at Accel, Rich Wong Instabug’s beginnings remind him “very much of the early days”.

“I just love the grit and the drive of Omar, Moataz and team to build something special from seemingly unlikely beginnings,” Wong said. “They didn’t grow up in an environment with hundreds of examples of startup success around them like you have here in Silicon Valley, and had to have the guts to do something truly different.”

Read also: Nigerian Healthtech Startup Helium Health Raises $7 Million From Dubai- based VC

A Look At What Startup Instabug Does

Cairo-based 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 today, given that so many people are relying on apps during their pandemic lockdowns.

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). 

On whether the company is profitable, Omar said: 

“I believe we’ve always been running a disciplined business and keeping an eye on our burn before it was mainstream. We’re almost profitable now, and our revenues are strong. And because of this, we didn’t need to raise that much over the years. Our competitors raised way more money than what we did to hit our revenue milestones. The first time we hit profitability was actually 9 months after we launched our pricing plans. We launched our first pricing plans in January 2015 and our revenues grew so fast that we became profitable by September of the same year.”

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer