Google acquires LaunchKit, will discontinue hosted mobile development services

Google has acquired LaunchKit, adding the maker of a toolkit for mobile app development to its Developer Product Group. As a result, all of LaunchKit’s services will remain online for the next 12 months before being discontinued. However, the whole suite of products and services has been open-sourced for any developer to use.

Launched about two years ago, LaunchKit aimed to make developing mobile apps easier. It launched a host of tools including Screenshot Builder, App Website Builder, Review Monitor, and Sales Reporter. Many of these services were free to use, while a couple had a premium offering.

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Built by Brenden Mulligan, Taylor Hughes, and Riz Sattar, LaunchKit has helped more than 50,000 mobile developers focus on what makes their app unique across both iOS and Android devices. Its Screenshot Builder tool has so far created more than 1,500,000 screenshots.

LaunchKit also worked on consumer apps such as Cluster, Screenshotter, ChurchSnaps, Homeroom, Tripcast, Daily Kiddo, and many others that it felt would bring families and friends together.

The inclusion of the LaunchKit team into Google’s Developer Product Group will likely spur new innovation and tools developers can use to build Android apps. This space includes information on logging in using Google accounts, analytics, messaging, storage and sync, app testing, monetization, payments, gaming, maps, and monitoring performance. Mulligan’s team could further introduce proactively developing tools that app makers need to get their products off the ground and be successful.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. LaunchKit had raised an undisclosed investment from GV, First Round, Baseline, Freestyle, Sherpa, SV Angel, and other angel investors.