BugHerd gets funding boost from Starfish

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 24 January 2012 15:25

IT Industry - Market

Australian start-up company, BugHerd, the makers of the bug tracking product by the same name, has secured $500,000 in funding from Melbourne-based venture capital firm Starfish Ventures as the company pursues a strong growth path this year, including plans to market its product globally.

Starfish's investment in BugHerd is seen by both companies as a solid stepping stone on a strong growth path for 2012, and BugHerd co-founder, Matt Milosavljevic said the company will use the investment to bolster the team and market the product globally in 2012. Co-Founder Matt Milosavljevic said the company had 'already kicked off new efforts on the sales and marketing side and are next looking to add some further strength to the development team.'

BugHerd was born after co-founders Milosavljevic and Alan Downie were unable to find a bug tracking solution suitable for logging and managing visual website issues, and after developing the idea further they pitched it to Australian start-up incubator, Startmate, and were selected for incubation in Starmate's class of 2011.

BugHerd will use the Starfish Ventures investment to bolster the team and market the product globally in 2012. Co-Founder Matt Milosavljevic said: 'We've already kicked off new efforts on the sales and marketing side and are next looking to add some further strength to the development team.'

Since selection by Starmate last year, BugHerd has since attracted angel investors and investment from prominent US incubator fund, 500 Startups, and it was subsequently the first Australian company to participate in 500 Startups' accelerator program in Silicon Valley.

The company also won the People's Choice award at the Australian technology awards, Tech23.

Co-founder Alan Downie says the funding from Starfish enables the company to stay based in Australia. 'A lot of startups are in a rush to get over to the US these days, but we're keen to show that with the right support you can do it all from here without compromising the business. And with Starfish, we still have the option of moving to the States if we ever choose.'

Tony Glenning, Starfish Ventures' lead on the investment in BugHerd said the company was strong believers in what the BugHerd team is aiming to achieve. 'We could see how the products available on the market really weren't usable by non-technical users, leaving a huge gap in the market for a solution like BugHerd. The guys have really identified a strong customer pain point and developed a remarkable product to meet it.'

Glenning said Starfish had been investing in innovative early stage technology start-ups for over a decade and believes that BugHerd compliments their portfolio of existing companies.