AltStore, a third-party app store and one of the first alternative marketplaces in the European Union, is preparing to connect its platform with the fediverse. This move will link users on open social apps like Mastodon or Meta’s Threads with updates from their favorite applications in a new way.
The startup also announced its first funding round from outside investors, a six million dollar Series A from Pace Capital. This deal gives the venture firm a fifteen percent 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 supporter of the fediverse, is 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. The startup already 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 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 the 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 up 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 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 one hundred 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 publish apps more freely and those who would not meet Apple’s stricter requirements, such as its adult content restrictions. Developers also appreciate that the store supports different business models, from traditional subscriptions to user donations for app development.
The company reports it now has hundreds of thousands of users.
Now, alongside the additional funding, AltStore is launching its own Mastodon server running on the ActivityPub protocol. 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. This means if you have a Mastodon account or a Threads account, you could follow these accounts and see app updates in your timeline.
Once opted in, these updates will be automated by way of a JSON file with metadata, outputting whatever is in the AltStore to the fediverse. This adds a social layer, allowing people to reply to apps from their Mastodon account or like content from their Threads account. The plan is also to bridge the service with the open social ecosystem on Bluesky using tools from the nonprofit A New Social. The service will 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 is donating five hundred thousand dollars to various projects in the fediverse. So far, it has donated to Mastodon, as well as Bridgy Fed by A New Social; Ivory and Phoenix by Tapbots; Tapestry by The Iconfactory; mstdn.social; Akkoma; PeerTube; Bookwyrm; and Fedify.