Kinvey says it can make Microsoft’s on-premises software mobile-first in minutes

Kinvey, a startup that offers a mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) cloud that companies can use for building and running mobile apps, is today launching Rapid Connectors that can quickly and easily get data flowing from on-premises software from Microsoft into mobile apps.

The new tools can work with SharePoint Server collaboration software and the SQL Server relational database management system. The connectors don’t cost a lot of money to use, they can be working in 10 minutes instead of months, and they push in data in less than one second, Kinvey founder and CEO Sravish Sridhar told VentureBeat in an interview.

It’s a little odd to see Kinvey supporting Microsoft technology, because Microsoft sells the Azure public cloud that has MBaaS capability in the Azure App Service. But there you go — Kinvey discovered that some companies find it difficult to mobilize data in SharePoint and SQL Server, and now the startup has devised software that makes that process easier.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella always seems to be talking about “the mobile-first, cloud-first world.” So it’s fascinating to see a little startup coming up with a way to make Microsoft’s own software mobile-first.

Kinvey is one of a few independent startups remaining in the MBaaS market. AnyPresence, CloudMine, and Kony are still around. But earlier this week, Axway announced that it had bought Appcelerator. In November, the assets of Kidozen were acquired by Mad Mobile. In 2014, Red Hat bought FeedHenry. Facebook bought Parse in 2013. PayPal bought StackMob in late 2013, only to shut it down a few months later.

Kinvey’s customers include Nascar, NBCUniversal, Sanofi, Schneider Electric, and VMware. The Boston-based startup announced a $10.8 million funding round in September 2014.

More information on the Rapid Connectors is here.