macnn/ipodnn
05/27/2008, 10:20am, EDT
Tuesday, May 27th
iFund currently only backing two developers
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.
The iFund has also paid to support a company called iControl, which is developing home automation software that should allow an iPhone to operate as a remote, and thus operate appliances such as lights and air conditioners.
Regarding future investments, KPCB says that while it has received proposals from 1,700 startups, it has only extended an offer to one more; 10 others are said to be under serious consideration.
Filed under: iPod, iPhone, software, developer
Other story tags: iPod touch, iFund, Pelago
, 
, 4
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Top
subscribe to comments
for this article
Not news
This isn't really news. It takes time for companies to secure Venture Capital, so one wouldn't expect a ton of successful applications already.
Condolences
And those two developers can expect to be royally reamed if their products ever go anywhere.
Not surprising
Not surprising at all. Most small developers have no clue how to put together a proper business plan and I'm not in the least surprised that the VC has likely turned down the vast majority of proposals submitted.
Those apps are lame...
...I wouldn't buy either one of them. The problem with iPhone apps is that after spending $400 on the phone, most people are not going to buy that much software. I doubt there will be many apps that sell for $30 or more, but I could be totally wrong.
If iFund invests a million dollars, they will need sales of 50,000 a year at $20 to even remotely make it worthwhile and that's just a million a year in revenue. I guess if the right killer app comes along it will sell millions of copies, but those two are not it.