Parallelz Raises $3M Pre-Seed Funding to Challenge App Store Monopoly

Breakthrough Platform Instantly Runs Any Mobile App in the Browser with No Quality Loss, No Code Changes, No SDK

Parallelz announced an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round of $3.0 million USD to build out its software platform that will enable entirely new ways to distribute and discover mobile applications. The funding, sourced from prominent industry leaders and venture investors, will help the technology company grow its team and accelerate platform development.

Parallelz Founder and CEO Albert Lai said the new funding shows excitement for his company’s mission to challenge “the app store monopoly.” The breakthrough software architecture developed by Parallelz instantly transforms native mobile applications into native web applications, without any compromise to visual quality or user experience. Better yet, the application transformation — once considered impossible — doesn’t require any work by a developer. No code changes required, and no need for an SDK.

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By making mobile apps instantly accessible, shareable, and embeddable, Parallelz unlocks new ways for developers and users to drive app adoption – accelerating discovery and virality across multiple digital and social channels. In doing so, Parallelz will help to solve two major business challenges in the mobile ecosystem: increasing customer acquisition costs and inefficient user discovery.

“When I heard about Parallelz, I didn’t believe it was possible until I saw it. Parallelz enables new and radically powerful opportunities to drive virality and growth – that is a game changer,” said investor Ed Baker, founder and CEO of AnyQuestion, and former VP of Growth at Uber and Head of International Growth at Facebook.

“Parallelz has achieved what many developers thought was impossible. Soon, sharing a mobile app will be as easy as sending a link,” said investor Ryan Hoover, founder of Product Hunt and investor at Weekend Fund.

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Parallelz was founded by experienced mobile gaming and software leaders including serial entrepreneurs and technologists from Google, Mozilla, MIT Media Lab, Bridgewater Associates and other top technology companies. The company plans to make its platform available in limited release later this year.

Investor Andre Charoo, general partner at Maple VC, which led the pre-seed funding round, said that the combination of “app fatigue, rising user acquisition costs, the 30% tax, and a single point of failure” has made mobile apps “an increasingly more difficult and inefficient channel” for marketers and brands. “Parallelz has invented a next-gen computing architecture that revolutionizes the delivery, discovery and distribution of mobile apps.”

In addition to Baker, Charoo and Hoover, Parallelz’ investors include pre-seed investors from Global Founders Capital, Play Ventures, Garage Capital, Two Small Fish Ventures. Additional individual investors include Jonathan Lai, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz; Jude Gomila, founder and CEO, Golden; Kyu Lee, president, Com2uS; and Farhan Thawar, vice president of engineering, Shopify.

According to Alexander McIsaac, partner at Global Founders Capital: “Forcing users to download and install apps has unnecessarily created friction. Parallelz removes the friction and replaces it with a method that is easy for users and developers alike.”

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