Fuse raises $12 million for app building tool that helps designers and developers collaborate

In 2015, Fuse began testing a service that it claimed would provide a better way for designers and developers to build mobile apps, eliminating the need to constantly compile code. Today the company announced it has hit a major milestone, raising a $12 million Series A round from returning investors Northzone and Alliance Ventures. With this new investment, Fuse said it’ll increase hiring while also pushing more into the enterprise and developer communities.

With Fuse’s tool, developers can build applications in a manner equivalent to how designers would work in Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, or After Effects. It uses a “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editor with cross-platform controls featuring real-time updating so changes made to the app will appear instantaneously on test devices.

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“Winning today’s app battles comes down to having killer UX,” explained company cofounder and chief executive Anders Lassen. “We hear the demand loud and clear for a faster, more effective way to build apps that deliver great user experience. The early response to our platform has been extremely validating to our mission, and the added excitement from the investor community is just fantastic.”

In an email interview, Fuse said it has received interest from not only developers, but also design agencies and studios, along with global brands in the enterprise and consumer space. The latest infusion of capital steers the company toward short-term goals, namely launching two more tools called Fuse Pro and Fuse Views.

Fuse Pro will be a visual design tool available through a monthly subscription that allows user experience markup to be edited visually, instead of through code. Fuse hopes it’ll facilitate the development of “groundbreaking new app experiences, including all those who don’t want to write markup code by hand.” From what we’re told, this mirrors what Fuse told VentureBeat in 2015. This tool is currently being tested internally, but a beta program is expected soon, with a public release in Q2.

Fuse Views lets developers enhance apps built in Apple’s Xcode platform or Android studio. “If you already have the core functionality of your app but want to create a beautiful onboarding screen, animated menus, or have the ability to tweak your app user interface in real time, you can include Fuse Views within your app,” the company said. “This enables designers to truly own the UI, animation, and user experience and not require lengthy and complex roundtrips between developers, designers, and stakeholders.”

Additionally, there are plans to open-source the core Fuse platform.

The company said that it has “tens of thousands” of users and a “steady influx of new people discovering the platform,” but it declined to provide specifics.

As with most companies that hit Series A funding, Fuse will spend some of the money beefing up its team, which is expected to grow from 25 to around 50 people.

The company has raised more than $19 million in funding, to date.

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