YC-Backed Filepicker.io Goes Mobile, Brings Cloud Service Integration To iOS And Android Apps

Filepicker.io, a Y Combinator-backed company building tools that make it easier for developers to integrate access to cloud services within their applications, is now bringing its capabilities to mobile developers building apps on iOS and Android. With the new Filepicker.io Mobile Library, developers can quickly add integrations which let their apps connect to popular online services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Facebook, Flickr, Evernote and more.

For developers, the result of using the drop-in SDK is a sped up time to market, as Filepicker eliminates the need to code these type of integrations themselves. For end users of the apps, it means an easier way to move data between their favorite cloud services, without having to first save a copy locally to their device.

Created by four recent MIT graduates, Anand Dass, Brett Van Zuiden, Liyan David Chang, and Thomas Georgiou, Filepicker.io debuted its initial offering for web developers earlier this year. That offering went on to win them the $100,000 grand prize in MIT’s business plan competition back in May. The winnings, combined with the YC funding and the $150,000 which all YC companies get from Start Fund, is enough for the team right now, says Dass. “Capital is not a constraint for growth just yet,” he explains, “but sometimes late fall, we might do a round,” he adds.

While there have been a number of services that have attempted to pull together cloud services and make them interoperable, especially on the consumer side (e.g. Dispatch, Jolicloud, Greplin, Kitedesk, etc.), a couple of these have notably pivoted in recent weeks. (See Jolicloud Me, Greplin becomes Cue). “[These services] were all doing the aggregation play, which is – ‘hey, consumer, throw all your content into one place and we’ll manage it for you,’” explains Dass, “we think that the value is not in aggregation but in interoperability,” he says. “What we’re doing and how we’re different is that we’re focused on building the technology platform that hooks up the storage platforms on one side (like Dropbox, GDrive, Box) with web and mobile applications. It’s a developer product.”

Filepicker.io’s technology has been in beta testing with some developers already, who are in various stages of deployment. Live now are Reputation.com, TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 finalist Sunglass, Bugly, and Smallknot, as well as mobile app launch partners Breezy, Fetchnotes (our coverage), Handshakeapp, and Knowmia. Once integrated, mobile app developers can now point users to other cloud-based locations (following authentication) as easily and they now point users to the Camera Roll on iOS or the Gallery on Android.

Pricing for the service is on a freemium basis, with paid plans offering additional capabilities like image conversion, custom storage, custom branding, versioning and sync, SLAs and support, and more.

Interested developers can now sign up here to try it out.