Localytics rides boom in mobile apps analytics

Localytics, developer of a mobile app analytics platform for enterprises and app publishers, has closed a Series A funding round for $2.5 million.

The oversubscribed funding round for the Cambridge, Mass.-based company was led by existing investors Launchpad Venture Group and New York Angels, and joined by Hub Angels as a new investor. In a blog post, Localytics CEO Raj Aggarwal said the company will use the new funds to ramp up its sales efforts to enterprise-level customers and to expand offerings to mid-market publishers.

The need for mobile app analytics is exploding, fueled by continued growth in smartphones and the huge impact of Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy and other tablets. This new financing will enable us to better meet that demand, as well as expand our product portfolio to meet the needs of the mid-market.

Localytics’ platform is designed to provide app developers with real-time reports on how their customers are using their apps. The company’s basic offering monitors usage and lets app publishers chart results of hourly activity. Localytics also is launching a premium version of the service that offers custom charting and reporting and more analytics—including a new App Comparison tool that puts up a developer’s app against rivals to compare performance. The Premium version costs $95 per month and is available for Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone and Windows Phone 7 apps. Localytics says it provides its analytics services to mo developers of apps for smartphone and tablet applications that reach more than 50 million end users.

The mobile app sector is a bit of an anomaly in the startup business world these days when it comes to funding. While VC funding is trickling back slowly into many sectors, there is a relative gush of it into the mobile app world—along with lots of mergers and acquisitions as mobile app players prepare to do battle in the hotly competitive sector. That’s not to say any app developer will get funding or get swallowed up by a suitor—but smart, well-struck ideas that fill an untapped niche or innovatively attack an existing realm certainly are attracting their fair share of attention.