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 with the open social web known as the fediverse.
The move would connect users on other open social apps, like Mastodon or Meta’s Threads, with updates from their favorite apps in a new way.
In addition, the startup is announcing its first funding round from outside investors, with a $6 million Series A from Pace Capital. The deal gives the venture firm a 15% equity 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 for alternative app stores both in the EU and beyond as new competition laws are passed. Already, the startup has plans to bring its storefront to markets including Australia, Brazil, and Japan this year. To do so, the company needed to bring on 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 permit new rivals to operate. While the startup offers its own third-party apps, led by video game emulator Delta, it began adding other third-party apps in June 2024. This included the virtual machine app UTM, a move that pressured Apple to open its own App Store to allow virtual machines.
AltStore also partnered with Epic Games in August of last year to bring Fortnite and other mobile games to its EU 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 for free on AltStore PAL, prompting further growth.
AltStore’s founders told TechCrunch that the store now has over 100 developers on board, which is more than Epic Games offers on its alternative games store, for comparison. AltStore, which is not limited to games, attracts a variety of developers, including indies who want to put out apps more as well as those who wouldn’t meet Apple’s stricter requirements, like its adult content restrictions.
Plus, developers like that the store supports different types of business models, whether that’s a more traditional subscription or something where users donate toward the app’s development, for instance.
“We have hundreds of thousands of users,” AltStore co-founder Testut told TechCrunch in an interview. “Wonderful and 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 opt in to have their app updates published to the new server.
“That means, if you have a Mastodon account or a Threads account, you could follow these accounts. You could follow the source from our Mastodon server. Then, in your timeline, you’d see when there was an app update,” explains Testut.
Once opted in, these updates will be automated by way of a JSON file with metadata. And this will output whatever is in the AltStore to the fediverse.
“It’s adding a social layer,” said Testut. “People can reply to apps from their Mastodon account. They can like stuff from their Threads account.” (Plus, the plan is to bridge the service with the open social ecosystem on Bluesky, using tools from the nonprofit, A New Social.)
The service will also help with discoverability, as users can look to the server and the accounts it hosts to find apps they may want to try.
With the additional funds, AltStore wants to give back to the ecosystem that will make its social network possible.
To that end, it’s giving back $500,000 to various projects in the fediverse. So far, it’s 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.