Improved workflow through Fuse

When creating apps, designers and developers begin by making wireframes and mockups of their concepts, which then has to be redone with code when the building process begin. Fuse look to change this workflow, through a unique app development platform. The Fuse team was one of the Nordic startups represented at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.

Introducing Fuse

Fuse is an Oslo and Palo Alto-based startup, that has created an app development platform, which help designers and developers work better together. The platform is a bridge between static designs and fully working native apps on Android and iOS.  It sets up designers with the tools to work directly on their apps, just as they would normally do with prototypes and mockups.

It enables designers to play a bigger part in the overall app building process, by making it easier for developers to create things, which can immediately be customized by the designer. This removes small iterations such as having to tell a programmer to move something five pixels to the left.

“Fuse is the first tool that is both a development tool as well as design tool. When you can create working apps that are actual code, instead of mockups and “dead data”, and then iterate quickly on those with both designers and developers, why would you ever want to go back?” expressed Bent Stamnes, CMO of Fuse.

The app development industry is seeing impressive growth, and the team behind Fuse recognize this. They want to get rid of the current workflow, which currently involves a lot of duplicating work for Android and iOS.

“What makes Fuse truly unique is that all this power and flexibility is available both through pure code in a powerful dialect of C#, as well as an artist-friendly abstraction layer that compiles down to the same source code. No compromises, just great workflow,” said Anders Lassen, CEO and Co-Founder of Fuse, and continued:

“It is not sustainable when developers have to struggle with portability, instead of investing their time and ideas into what makes their apps great.”

Attending SXSW

The Fuse team was one of the Nordic startups attending SXSW (South By Southwest) in Austin, Texas. They went to SXSW to meet with current and future partners, to connect with interesting people and companies and get exposure for their upcoming beta.

“We were able to do everything we set out to do. The hard part is keeping all those connections as well as building them into relationships, which can benefit our startup,” said Bent Stamnes, CMO of Fuse.

Bent believes that there is something special about Nordic startups, and that more people should pay attending to this region.

“Working hard is definitely a part of our cultural heritage. We can stay very quietly, and then suddenly emerge with an amazing product.”

Beta testing in 2015

Fuse recently came out stealth, while also announcing a $2.8 million funding round led by Northzone, which is known for investing in the likes of Spotify and Trustpilot. The Fuse platform has been in private alpha testing for over a year, and the team behind the platform look to launch the beta later in 2015.

“We will begin to open up the beta program very soon, and that is the number one thing on everyone’s mind back in the office. We have had a huge amount of interest so far, and it is definitely something that people want. Not just the cross-platform support, but also a massively improved workflow,” said Anders Lassen.

Fuse has ambitious plans and the beta is only the beginning. The platform has been built bottom-up in order to be extremely extensible, and that is something they look to take advantage of.

“We are currently building higher-level tools, which can be used on top of what we already have today. We have planned many new features for developers and designers, and some of these are already in development.  However, in the end it will be feedback from our beta testers that decide what features comes first.

You can sign up for the beta here.