iFund to Offer $100 Million in Seed Money to iPhone Developers

[MacRumors]

One of the announcements at today's iPhone SDK event was the creation of the "iFund" by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The iFund promises $100 million in venture capital to invest in companies developing applications and services for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch.

"A revolutionary new platform is a rare and prized opportunity for entrepreneurs, and that's exactly what Apple has created with iPhone and iPod touch," said John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "We think several significant new companies will emerge as this new platform evolves, and the iFund will empower them to realize their full potential."

"Developers are already bursting with ideas for the iPhone and iPod touch, and now they have the chance to turn those ideas into great companies with the help of world-class venture capitalists," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We can't wait to start working with Kleiner Perkins and the companies they fund through this new initiative."

The funding will focus on location based services, social networking, mCommerce, communication, and entertainment.


Article Link

 

[macduke]

How can I get this money? I'd love to develop for the iPhone. Hey Apple...throw some cash my way!

Now all the rich kids are going to be asking for iFunds for Christmas.

 

[amac4me]

Holy crap This is huge news for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and most importantly ... APPLE.

A major commitment by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers backed by a whopping $100 million. This can't be understated.

Renaming the company to "Apple Inc." makes more sense now

 

[neilah1]

For more reading...

http://www.thedeal.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=hpa&p=M4YD5AR1&c=TDDArticle&cid=1204065763525

 

[Diode]

This is fairly smart ... with apple gaining such a huge chunk of smart device market I can see a lot of money to be made in 3rd part apps down the road.

 

[macduke]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Yeah, I would totally consider picking up some Apple stock if I hadn't just spent that money on a MBP. They aren't playing around. This is going to be bigger than iPod EVER was. This is a game changer. What everyone thought they knew about the cellphone industry is literally being flipped upside down. I love it. I predict within 10 years Apple will be bigger than Microsoft and Steve Jobs will say "it is finished", retire, and die a happy man on his own island in the south pacific.

Am I becoming a fanboy?!? Just a few short years ago I was building PCs...my new mac is amazing!!

 

[esquire360]

I love the kool-aid

yummy