KPCB - iFund™ Initiative

iFund™

Seeking outstanding iPad & iPhone innovators

iFund Announcement, March 31, 2010

Bing Gordon welcomes the iPad with poems:

Photos:

KPCB’s iFund™ is a $200M investment initiative that is funding market-changing ideas and products that build upon the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The iFund™ is agnostic to size and stage of investment and invests in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, health care, education, and entertainment. The iFund™ backs innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone OS platform.

"Welcome to the brave new post-PC era where a swoosh of fluidity replaces the traditional mouse-bound GUI. A new, truly revolutionary platform is rare, and a prize for entrepreneurs," said John Doerr, KPCB Partner. "We expect all ventures to have an iPhone & iPad strategy. We will fund many more ventures for iPhone & iPad, and the iFund will accelerate their success."

"Kleiner Perkins has done a terrific job at finding, funding and supporting great iPhone app developers," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We are thrilled that they are doubling the size of their fund, along with expanding it to now include iPad developers too."

The iFund has invested in 14 companies to date, including:

Booyah - Creating new forms of entertainment to the masses by bringing together elements of the real world and the digital world.
Cooliris - a 3D interface for browsing vast amounts of rich media content on the iPhone and web
Flipboard - The world’s first personalized, social magazine; it combines the beauty and ease of print with the power of social media.
GOGII - Leading free texting (textPlus), communication, and group social interaction product for mobile.
iControl - Stay connected in real-time to what matters most-family, property, home, and business-from anywhere in the world, anytime, day or night.
InMobi - the largest independent mobile ad network, reaching mobile users in 37 countries
ng:moco - The first iPhone-only games publisher with 10+ leading titles and the Plus Network for 3rd party developers.
Pelago (Whrrl) - Mobile social network and discovery app that allows you to find people, places, events, and trends through the eyes of your friends and other people on the Whrrl platform.
Pinger - a publisher of great utility and entertainment apps for iPhone
Shazam - The world's leading mobile music discovery and socialization application - enabling consumers to experience and share music with others.
shopkick - focused on the intersection of mobile and the physical retail world. Its goal is to dramatically improve the experience of consumers on that intersection.
Zynga mobile – the world’s largest social gaming network, bringing social games to iPhone and iPod Touch

The iFund™ is managed by KPCB Partner Matt Murphy in collaboration with partners Chi-Hua Chien, John Doerr, Bing Gordon, Bill Joy, Randy Komisar, Aileen Lee, Ellen Pao and Ted Schlein. Apple will provide KPCB with market insight and support.

For more information or questions, please read the iFund™ FAQs or email iFund@kpcb.com

Related Press