Emerge Tools Secures $1.7M to Reduce App Sizes

The Growing Problem of App Size

Applications invariably increase in size over their lifespan. The addition of new functionalities necessitates more code, the integration of third-party frameworks, and an expansion of assets such as images and videos. Often, resources like fonts and documentation are duplicated, and optimizations or compression techniques are overlooked during the build process.

Maintaining smaller app sizes benefits both users and developers, yet it isn't always a primary focus. It’s an aspect that can be easily overlooked, particularly within larger development teams with competing priorities, until user feedback highlights the issue.

Introducing Emerge: A Solution for App Size Management

Emerge, a company originating from Y Combinator’s W21 program, is developing tools designed to help developers keep their applications lean. Their system monitors changes between builds and provides recommendations for reducing the storage space required by an app.

Why App Size Matters

There are numerous compelling reasons to prioritize smaller app sizes, as Emerge co-founder Joshua Cohenzadeh explains. For instance, excessively large iOS applications may trigger a suggestion from the App Store for users to download updates over WiFi – potentially leading to lost installs.

Uber, in a recent blog post, reported that App Store size limitations resulted in a loss of up to 10% of potential installations. Furthermore, for a global user base, slower network speeds and data costs per megabyte must be considered, making every byte crucial.

A History of Building Tools

Emerge’s co-founders, Josh Cohenzadeh and Noah Martin, have collaborated on projects since their youth. They created QuickRes, a Mac menu bar tool for screen resolution adjustments, and later developed a popular screenshot manager for macOS.

They also built a menu bar widget for Tesla control and a Tinder photo A/B testing tool, which unfortunately resulted in a cease-and-desist notice, according to Cohenzadeh.

From Side Projects to a Startup

Following their college education and experiences at larger companies, Cohenzadeh and Martin decided to dedicate themselves fully to building a startup. Their initial idea stemmed from research indicating the significant efforts users undertake to transfer data in regions with limited mobile network access.

This led them to investigate data wastage within applications, and they discovered that app size was often a neglected area, even within established organizations.

“Small companies often lack the resources for dedicated performance teams and comprehensive optimizations,” Josh explains. “Emerge was founded on the principle of standardizing this process.”

How Emerge Works

Emerge delivers its insights through several methods. It integrates with GitHub to identify app size changes as comments within pull requests. Additionally, Emerge’s dashboard provides various perspectives on app space usage and suggests optimization strategies.

The “X-ray” view offers a quick overview of space allocation by framework or asset. It helps determine if the inclusion of a large framework is justified for infrequently used features.

It also identifies duplicate files that have inadvertently been included in builds. “The number of companies with duplicate files is truly astonishing,” Josh states.

The “Breakdown” view categorizes space usage – the size of the binary code, assets like images and videos, and other components.

The “Insights” tab provides actionable recommendations for reducing app size, such as stripping symbols from Swift binaries, utilizing HEIC images instead of PNG on iOS, and eliminating duplicate files.

Availability and Pricing

Currently, Emerge is onboarding new companies individually due to the stringent security reviews and legal agreements required for tool access. They plan to introduce a self-service model for smaller teams in the near future.

Pricing is customized based on factors like the number of apps, builds, team size, and target platforms. Emerge initially focused on iOS apps, but added support for Android apps last month.

Recent Funding

Emerge recently secured $1.7 million in funding – their first round. The investment was led by Haystack, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator, Liquid2 Ventures, and several angel investors, as reported by Cohenzadeh.