Software testing automation startup Qualiti Inc. said today it has closed on a $6.5 million round of seed funding led by Sierra Ventures with participation from Epic Ventures.

Qualiti has created an automated platform that uses generative artificial intelligence to help developers spin up a full testing suite for any software program or application in as little as 15 minutes, without any human input. With its platform, it’s aiming to disrupt the essential quality assurance process within software development.

Software testing is a key element of modern application development pipelines. It refers to the process of verifying and evaluating the functionality of the product in question. In an age where continuous updates are the standard practice for software developers, with apps constantly being updated sometimes even more than once a day, testing is a vital task that helps to reduce or eliminate the possibility of bugs.

By conducting thorough tests prior to releasing a new update, companies can reduce the amount of time and money required to address problems that appear. In addition, testing can help to improve the performance of applications, even if no bugs are found.

Previously, developers would have to create a series of tests for each application, or even use human testers to take the app for a spin and discover any bugs manually. But this is a slow process that can clearly benefit from automation, hence the need for an offering such as Qualiti’s.

The startup says it can create a full test suite for any application with zero human input. As each new application update arrives, Qualiti will add new tests where relevant, maintain existing tests and triage the results of these in real time, reporting any bugs that appear. It does this all without human oversight. According to Qualiti, this can mean savings of up to 30% of a company’s engineering budget.

“It’s about time AI does the work for us, and Qualiti has made that happen for testing,” said Qualiti Chief Executive Peter West. “We’re the only ones who have truly made that, a truly hands-off, no-human-work-needed AI managed solution, happen in testing.”

Qualiti adds that it has benefited from extremely rapid traction, growing its customer base by 340% month-over-month prior to today’s seed round. It said it will use the money in the back to expand its sales and engineering teams to grow even faster. Ultimately, it wants to become the only quality assurance tool software developers will need, provide near-instant feedback as soon as they push new code into production.

Sierra Ventures Managing Director Mark Fernandes said Qualiti has a unique opportunity to disrupt the test automation industry. “It’s in desperate need of innovation,” he said. “The rapid adoption of its solution by developers at very selective companies is evidence that the team has hit a nerve.”

Image: Qualiti