When our friend Davis told us about the new Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers iFund, my first thought was “another sign of too much VC money, too few quality deals”. On second thought — the iFund looks like a very efficient way for KPCB to put $100 million+ to work. The deal pipeline can share the due diligence effort, stimulate cross-developer component development, and Apple’s involvement will certainly help. Odds are Apple development will be influenced by what the iFund pipeline needs.
The iFund will also put KPCB in an advantageous position to build a network of iPhone innovators — a potential hothouse of innovation for follow on deals.
I wondered how KPCB will deal with the reality that many of the entrepreneurs won’t need much money. I.e., given the marketing boost provided by Apple’s App Store, I would expect angle investor size rounds to cover most of the startups. Well, the iFund will do deals from $100K up.
If you have an iPhone or iTouch innovation that needs some $$, start here. You can apply online.
KPCB’s iFund™ is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund™ is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment. The iFund™ will back innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone / iPod touch platform.
“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.”
I liked this paragraph in the FAQ
Q: How much will the iFund™ invest in each startup company?
A: The iFund™ will invest anywhere from $100K of seed capital to $15M of expansion capital in mobile application and services companies.
Well, duh…
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