06/23, 9:20pm
KPCB outlines iFund track record
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers at an event Thursday provided a look back at the performance of the iFund slightly more than three years since it was first started. The group considered it a success as it had decided to fund 25 companies that, combined should have 300 million downloads by the end of 2011. Two of the companies, ngmoco and Pelago, had found buyouts, while exercise-oriented Worksmart Labs was getting funding to expand beyond Android and develop iOS apps.
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04/21, 2:55pm
DCM A-Fund giving 100m cash to Android services
Venture capitalists at DCM on Thursday unveiled an Android equivalent to the well-known iFund. A-Fund will give startups and other companies a total pool of $100 million to support apps, hardware, and services for Android. The funding will get help from Japanese carrier KDDI, local social network GREE, and Tencent, the founder of Chinese portal QQ.
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03/31, 3:15pm
Investment group ups iFund to $200 million
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has announced plans to "double down" on its fund for iPhone and iPad apps. The venture capital firm has set aside $200 million to back App Store projects for Apple's entire range of mobile devices, up from the initial $100 million dedicated to the iFund in 2008.
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07/31, 3:20pm
Games co. gets iFund money
A gaming company has been chosen as the next iPhone developer to receive money from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, an announcement reveals. The venture capital firm has agreed to provide ngmoco with Series A money from the iFund, a $100 million pool created to boost companies interested in developing native applications for the iPhone. Although ngmoco was only founded this year and is still seeking game creators and technical staff, it may be helped by the presence of Bing Gordon, a former chief creative officer with Electronic Arts, now one of the largest game publishers in the world.
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05/27, 10:20am
First iFund-backed devs
The iFund -- a $100 million resource set up by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers -- is currently only paying to support two different iPhone development projects, writes BusinessWeek. The first of these is a port of an application by Pelago called Whrrl, which lets users scan for nearby attractions visited by them or their friends, as well as hit a button and receive a rundown of ongoing events. Controversially, revenue is expected to be earned by letting advertisers target the movements of individual customers, raising privacy issues.
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05/12, 12:40am
RIM BlackBerry Fund
Research in Motion early Monday confirmed rumors with the launch of the BlackBerry Partners Fund, a venture capital pool meant to rival the iFund for the iPhone. The $150 million pool eclipses the $100 million for the Apple device but shares the same goal of spurring growth in app development: promising young companies at any stage of development for their BlackBerry software can apply for capital to help their apps reach completion.
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