Guardsquare buys Runway and Bugfender to cover more of the mobile app lifecycle
What's the deal? Guardsquare, a Boston- and Leuven-based mobile application security provider, has acquired Runway and BugfenderDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Runway offers a mobile release management platform; Bugfender provides remote logging and crash reporting. Terms were not disclosed.
What's the endgame? The two deals push Guardsquare beyond app protection into release coordination and in-production diagnostics. "With Guardsquare, developers can now build, release, troubleshoot, and secure their mobile apps," said chief executive officer Roel Caers.
What each adds: Runway brings the mobile release process into one shared view for Android and iOS teams, tracking readiness and health. Once an app is live, Bugfender captures logs and crash data from devices in the field to help developers fix hard-to-reproduce bugs.
Why now? Guardsquare frames the moves against AI-powered attacks that are raising the speed and sophistication of mobile threats. Demand for frequent app updates and higher reliability is also making release management more complex, the company said.
What changes for the founders: Both startups keep their products while gaining Guardsquare's reach. "By joining Guardsquare, we are helping mobile teams protect and release their apps with greater confidence, all under one roof," said Runway co-founder and chief executive officer Gabriel Savit. Bugfender co-founder and chief executive officer Aleix Ventayol said the deal lets it bring "real-time observability to a broader mobile development and security ecosystem."
The signal: The purchases extend a run of expansion for Guardsquare, which bought Verimatrix's Extended Threat Defense assets in February 2026. They land amid wider consolidation around mobile-security platforms — OneSpan completed its acquisition of Build38 in March — but stand out for folding developer workflow and observability tools, not just security tech, under one roof. With no terms disclosed, the financial scale of the move remains hard to judge.
Read more: businesswire.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
