I wish I could design an app.
A friend of mine accidentally designed one once. He was messing around with some code and stumbled upon a way to send text messages anonymously. £400,000 later he’s set up his own company.
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When Kumulos got in touch to tell me about their app development software I was intrigued to see the Dundee company also had offices in North Carolina.
I had to get my geek on as I read about their push notification geofencing (really quite cool, though I appreciate this won’t mean much to a lot of folk.)
I asked them about their history, and it turns out they’re a spin out of mobile app developer and digital consultancy Waracle, (whose CEO Chris Martin is part of the SCALE:Edinburgh programme).
Kumulos developed technology to solve common problems with building and managing mobile app developments for their enterprise clients. Now they’re scaling at a rapid rate – revenues are up 300% in the last year and customers come from over 25 countries.
“The idea of the product is to provide mobile app development businesses and consultancies – like Waracle – with a platform that lets them manage all their clients and all of their apps, all in one place,” founder Mark Petrie told me.
“It helps them build mobile apps faster – around 40% faster than conventional means – and helps them manage the complete application performance. It goes from when the app goes live – from how the app is found in the app store, to gaining insights into how the app is used, to optimising user experience, to driving engagement and retaining mobile app users.”
Their newest development, push notification geofencing, means you can be hyper-targeted. The user’s physical location is an extremely important marketing tool – if they enter a shopping centre, for example, you can send them information about sales or special discount codes just for the stores in that centre.
The reason I find this bit exciting is that it is a hugely underused marketing tool, only 22% of marketers say they’re using it according to Search Engine Watch’s advertising report.
No wonder Kumulos is scaling so fast.
“The ultimate value of the platform is that it helps mobile app developers work in partnership with their clients to drive a more successful outcome from their mobile app,” Mark said.
If you have a story about how your company is growing, drop me a line: [email protected]
Kim McAllister is a Journalist & Communications Consultant and director of Impact Online
