Mac management startup Fleetsmith launches out of stealth with $3.1 million

Fleetsmith, a startup that has developed software that automates the management of multiple Mac computers, is launching out of stealth mode today and announcing a $3.1 million seed round. The service is now available in beta, at $8.25 per month when paid annually or $10 per device per month when paid monthly, with access for at least 50 devices.

Fleetsmith is meant to be easy for pretty much anyone to manage. Even getting on board is easy. Thanks to an integration with Google’s G Suite through Fleetsmith’s web app, signing in takes just one click. Once end users and their devices have been added and a native Mac app has been installed, admins can deploy applications and force app and operating system updates for everyone or just for certain groups of employees. Security features like disk encryption and firewalls can also be centrally managed.

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From Fleetsmith, it’s easy to see which devices people are using and which specs they have. It will even alert admins when a Mac’s battery should be replaced. Plus, admins can be informed when registered devices haven’t checked in for some time.

Typically, updating a single app like Google Chrome across everyone’s device involves going to Google’s website, downloading the installer, automating the deployment, uploading it to a management system, and then manually deploying the update, Fleetsmith chief product officer and chief security officer Jesse Endahl told VentureBeat.

When you have to do that for every app, “it becomes a real rabbit hole in terms of time,” said Endahl, who previously helped develop a centralized laptop management system at Dropbox.

While there are many companies that sell software for managing Windows machines, the Mac management market is not so crowded. One competitor is Jamf, but Fleetsmith’s target customers are smaller than Jamf’s, said Fleetsmith chief executive Zack Blum, who was previously director of IT at Wikia.

Harrison Metal and Index Ventures jointly led the round. Scott Cannon, Arash Ferdowsi, Zane Lackey, and Kevin Mahaffey also participated.

Based in San Francisco, Fleetsmith now has around a dozen employees. Blum and Endahl started the company earlier this year with Kenneth Kouot and Stevie Hryciw. Fleetsmith is identifying five customers: Blurb, Nuna, Patreon, Sentry, and Signal Sciences.