Steven Walske

Jan 18, 2012

By Angela Sormani Trigger, which offers a mobile development framework specifically targeted at web developers rather than existing mobile teams, has raised $1 million in seed round of funding. Funds have been raised through AngelList. Investors include Paul Graham, SV Angel, 500 Startups, Russ Siegelman, Steven Walske, RightVentures, Venture51 and John Taysom. PRESS RELEASE New service, Trigger, today announced the launch of its cross-platform mobile development framework targeted at web developers who want to be able to create native mobile apps. With Trigger, developers only need to write apps once in HTML5, and use the service’s simple JavaScript API to access native functionality on Android, iOS, and desktop browsers, and distribute across all devices and their marketplaces. Trigger has raised $1M in a seed round of funding from several high-profile investors. With funding raised through AngelList, Trigger’s investors include Paul Graham, SV Angel, 500 Startups, Russ Siegelman, Steven Walske, RightVentures, Venture51 and John Taysom. “Demand for mobile apps, both native and mobile web, is exploding and web developers are looking for ways to benefit from this shift. With Trigger, developers can create rich, native apps using their existing skills,” said co-founder and CEO Amir Nathoo. “With Android activations up to 700,000 per day, the mobile applications market clearly is no longer just about iOS. This shift makes HTML5 extremely important as a cross-platform technology. But native functionality is needed to take advantage of the distribution and revenue opportunities – that’s where Trigger comes in – we make it possible.” Trigger’s framework, called Forge, stays out of the way while web developers create their applications in familiar web technologies – HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Developers can then use the tools at https://trigger.io/forge to build the app as native, with offline access and native functionality. Using Forge, developers can take advantage of HTML5’s power and ease, while hosting a full native feature set – including notifications, camera and file access, and full cross-domain access to enable secure transactions. Trigger’s debug tool, called Catalyst can then be used to provide a Webkit-style debugger for all platforms. Trigger’s framework suits web developers new to mobile app development. With so many web developers looking to crack into native apps and their revenue opportunities, Trigger offers the easiest way – working with open web standards and familiar languages. Established companies, meanwhile, can cut development costs, and save countless hours, by streamlining development. For example, Trigger cut the hours of development time for Airbrake.io, a private beta customer, several times over. “We faced having to re-build the same features across four or five platforms at once, which would have slowed our productivity to a crawl,” said Ben Arent, a web developer at Airbrake. “Rather than hiring developers with different skill sets to work separately on the same features, Trigger enabled us to create Android and iOS apps, and several browser extensions, from one development stream. Every new feature, every debug, we’re only having to deal with one codebase.” Trigger offers the simplest mobile development framework specifically targeted at web developers rather than existing mobile teams. The framework is kept simple by not allowing for custom native extensions meaning the local development environment and wrapping technology can be much lighter and better suited to pure web developers. Also, unlimited support on all subscription plans means that developers new to mobile can get the help they need to get great results. “Our private beta developers tell us that the complexity and ‘heaviness’ of the alternatives are the reason why they are working with us”, added Nathoo “cross-platform problems are not new, but are becoming more acute and existing solutions do not cut the mustard.” © 2015 Buyouts Insider / Argosy Group LLC