Abel Mathew

Abel Mathew is a systems engineer, entrepreneur, and angel investor with over 15 years of experience building high-performance software systems and leading engineering teams. He currently serves as Chief Technology Officer at Sauce Labs, a leading continuous testing and error monitoring platform, where he oversees global engineering operations including teams from multiple acquisitions (Backtrace, API Fortress, TestFairy, and AutonomIQ).

Mathew graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He began his career as a Performance Analysis Engineer at AMD, where he worked as a "server room monkey" focused on system performance optimization. He then joined IBM as a kernel module and tools developer, deepening his expertise in low-level systems programming and debugging.

His career took a significant turn when he joined AppNexus, the advertising technology giant, where he spent several years as a developer and team lead on the Adserver Team. In this role, he helped design and implement AppNexus' low-latency advertising platform, which handled massive scale and required sophisticated debugging capabilities. He was eventually promoted to Head of Engineering, Optimization, where he led teams of developers to improve ad optimization algorithms and reduce platform-wide operational costs.

The challenges Mathew and his team faced debugging complex, distributed systems at AppNexus inspired him to co-found Backtrace I/O in 2014 alongside Samy Bahra. Backtrace was built to solve the real-world debugging problems they encountered—addressing the reality that most organizations were "cobbling together very old" fragmented debugging solutions that couldn't keep pace with modern software complexity. As CEO, Mathew led Backtrace to become the leading error reporting and debugging platform for the gaming industry, capturing 17 of the top 20 global game developers as customers. In December 2016, Backtrace raised a $5 million Series A round led by Amplify Partners.

In July 2021, Sauce Labs acquired Backtrace, and Mathew joined as Chief Technology Officer six months later in December 2021. In this role, he leads the company's vision for delivering a comprehensive DevOps testing platform spanning manual and automated testing across pre-production and production environments. His appointment recognized both the successful integration of Backtrace into Sauce Labs and his proven leadership in building enterprise-grade developer tools.

As an angel investor, Abel Mathew focuses on early-stage companies (primarily seed-stage) in sectors where he has deep domain expertise: gaming technology, developer tools, infrastructure software, and productivity SaaS. His investment philosophy is informed by over a decade of experience building and scaling software systems, giving him a unique perspective on what founders need to succeed in highly technical markets.

Investment Focus Areas:

What He Looks For:

Value-Add: Mathew provides significant operational value to portfolio companies through his technical expertise, go-to-market insights from scaling Backtrace, and extensive network across gaming, SaaS, and developer tools ecosystems. As a Venture Partner at Griffin Gaming Partners since 2021, he also helps connect gaming startups with institutional capital and strategic partners.

• Gaming & Game Technology: Tools, platforms, and infrastructure for game developers
• Developer Tools & Infrastructure: Debugging, monitoring, testing, and productivity software for engineers
• SaaS & Productivity Software: B2B software that improves team efficiency and workflow
• AI & Generative Technology: Emerging AI applications, particularly in gaming and creative tools
• Technical founders with deep domain expertise who are solving problems they've personally experienced
• Products that address real pain points in software development and operations
• Scalable B2B business models with potential for enterprise adoption
• Strong product-market fit in technical or developer-focused markets