One of the first companies to offer an alternative app market in the European Union, a third-party app store known as Altstore is preparing to connect its platform to the open social web known as Fediverse.
This move will allow users to connect with other open social apps, such as Mastodon and Meta threads, and updates from your favorite apps in new ways.
Additionally, the startup has announced its first round of funding from outside investors, with a $6 million Series A from Pace Capital. The deal gives the venture a 15% stake in Altstore, allowing the company to hire a team beyond co-founders Riley Testut and Shane Gill.
Fediverse supporter Flipboard CEO Mike McCue is also currently on the startup board.
The founder, currently based in New York, says the new capital will help exploit the possibilities of alternative app stores as new competition laws are passed in the EU and beyond. Already, the startup is planning to introduce storefronts this year in markets, including Australia, Brazil and Japan. To do this, the company had to attract more staff.
Altstore has seen significant growth since the EU’s Digital Market Law (DMA) began competing in the App Store market, allowing tech giants like Apple to operate new rivals. The startup offers its own third-party apps, led by video game emulator Delta, but began adding other third-party apps in June 2024. This included the virtual machine app UTM.
Altstore partnered with Epic Games last August to bring Fortnite and other mobile games to Altstore Pal on the EU storefront. The company entered the adult app market this year with the decision to host a porn’s first iOS app and now its top app, Hot Tub.
In April, Altstore encouraged further growth by allowing developers to self-publish their apps on Altstore Pal for free.
The founder of Altstore told TechCrunch that more than 100 developers are involved in the store. Not limited to games, Altstore attracts a wide range of developers, including India who want to put out more apps, and indie users who don’t meet Apple’s stricter requirements, such as limiting content for adults.
Additionally, developers support a variety of business models, whether it’s more traditional subscriptions, or for example, users donate to the development of their apps.
“We have hundreds of thousands of users,” Altstore co-founder Testut told TechCrunch in an interview. “Amazing and good numbers.”
Now, along with additional funding, Altstore will launch its own Mastodon server running under the ActivityPub protocol, allowing users to view app updates and new information from the sources they follow. Developers can choose to publish app updates to new servers.
“So if you have a Mastodon account or a thread account, you can follow these accounts. You can follow the source of the Mastodon server. Then, on your timeline you can see that there was an update to the app,” explains Testut.
If selected, these updates are automated by a JSON file with metadata. And this will output everything in the Altstore to Fediverse.
“We’re adding social layers,” Testut said. “People can reply to the app from their Mastodon accounts. They like things from threaded accounts.” (And the plan is to bridge services in Bluesky’s open social ecosystem using the tools of the new social, nonprofit.)
This service also helps you discoverability as it allows users to find apps they want to try, in order to turn their attention to the server and the accounts they host.
With the additional funding, Altstore hopes to give back to the ecosystem that enables social networks.
That’s why we’re paying $500,000 back to various Fediverse projects. So far, it has been donated to Mastodon GGMBH ($300,000) and is supplied with new social by Tapbot, Ivory + Phoenix, IconFactory, MSTDN.Social, Akkoma, Peertube, Bookwyrm and Tapestry by Fedify.
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