Unleashing the creativity of mobile apps, by taking care of the pesky backend

Creating mobile apps is an art, say the execs at London-based backend-as-a-service (BaaS) startup Cloudbase.io, which wants to provide a canvas for the world’s inspired — or uninspired — app developers.

“People’s creative ideas for apps will be able to grow exponentially” with an accessible and low-cost backend, says Cloudbase.io VP of Sales Andrew Buchanan, who talk about providing the tools for mobile app artists at our Structure:Europe conference in September in London. The company is one of 10 Launchpad finalists — selected from nearly 90 entrants — that will present at the show.

The startup which was founded by Stefano Buliani and bootstrapped to date with just seven employees — has been providing its BaaS for a variety of mobile game developers in London, which has emerged as a hub for video game and mobile game developers internationally. Cloudbase.io’s service can help game developers get connected and do things like store networked game scores. Mobile game developers can also use Cloudbase.io’s shared API service to connect their standalone apps to others.

But the company now has its sights set on the enterprise market, and over the past two months the execs say they’ve moved into discussions with a variety of companies that might have ideas for mobile apps, but don’t necessarily know the best way to implement the apps and the infrastructure. Industries like market research, food, retail — you name it.

Cloudbase.io is looking for all those underserved execs within these divergent sectors that might have an idea for a brilliant mobile app, but think the costs of building and maintaining such an app are too high, and the time to implement the app could be too long. Fear of “the time to market stops the deployment of many novel app ideas,” says Buchanan.

If Cloudbase.io can break into the enterprise, it could be in a sweet spot. Enterprise mobile apps might not be the sexiest business in the world, but they’re clearly growing steadily.

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