Alternative app store AltStore raises $6 million, connects to fediverse

The third-party app store known as AltStore, one of the first companies to offer an alternative app marketplace in the European Union, is preparing to connect its platform to the open social web known as fediverse.

The move would connect users of other open social apps, like Mastodon or Meta’s Threads, to updates from their favorite apps in a new way.

Additionally, the startup announces its first funding round from outside investors, with a $6 million Series A from Pace Capital. The deal gives the venture capital firm a 15% stake in AltStore and will allow the company to hire a team beyond its co-founders, Riley Testut and Shane Gill.

Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, a fediverse backer, is also now joining the startup’s board.

The founders, now based in New York, say the new capital will help them capitalize on the potential of alternative app stores, both in the EU and beyond, as new competition laws are passed. The startup is already planning to expand its storefront to markets such as Australia, Brazil and Japan this year. To do this, the company needed to hire more staff, which the new funds now allow.

AltStore has seen notable growth since the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) opened up competition in the app store market, forcing tech giants like Apple to allow new competitors to operate. While the startup offers its own third-party apps, led by video game emulator Delta, it began adding more third-party apps in June 2024. This included the UTM virtual machine app, a move that prompted Apple to open its own App Store to allow virtual machines.

AltStore also partnered with Epic Games in August last year to offer Fortnite and other mobile games on its European storefront, AltStore PAL. The company also entered the adult app market this year with the decision to host an app called Hot Tub, which was the first iOS app for pornography and is now its top app.

In April, AltStore began allowing developers to self-publish their apps to AltStore PAL for free, leading to further growth.

AltStore’s founders told TechCrunch that the store now has more than 100 developers, which is more than Epic Games offers on its alternative games store, for comparison. AltStore, which isn’t limited to games, attracts a variety of developers, including indies who want to release more apps as well as those who wouldn’t meet Apple’s stricter requirements, like its adult content restrictions.

Additionally, developers like that the store supports different types of business models, whether it’s a more traditional subscription or a system in which users donate towards the development of the app, for example.

“We have hundreds of thousands of users,” Testut, co-founder of AltStore, told TechCrunch in an interview. “Wonderful, good numbers.”

Now, alongside the additional funding, AltStore is launching its own Mastodon server, running on the ActivityPub protocol, where users will be able to view app updates and new information from the sources they follow. Developers can choose to release their app updates to the new server.

“That means if you have a Mastodon account or a Threads account, you can follow those accounts. You can follow the source from our Mastodon server. Then in your timeline you’ll see when there was an app update,” says Testut.

Once enabled, these updates will be automated using a JSON file with metadata. And this will display everything in the AltStore to the fediverse.

“It adds a social layer,” Testut said. “People can reply to apps from their Mastodon account. They can like content from their Threads account.” (Additionally, the plan is to connect the service to the open social ecosystem on Bluesky, using tools from the nonprofit A New Social.)

The service will also make discovery easier, as users can look at the server and the accounts it hosts to find apps they want to try.

With the additional funds, AltStore wants to give back to the ecosystem that will make its social network possible.

To this end, he is donating $500,000 to various diversity projects. So far it has been donated to Mastodon gGmbH ($300,000), as well as Bridgy Fed by A New Social, Ivory + Phoenix by Tapbots, Tapestry by The Iconfactory, mstdn.social, Akkoma, PeerTube, BookWyrm and Fedify.