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Apperian picks up first enterprise iFund payout
The iFund has been pretty influential ever since it was announced a couple of years ago -- it's a pool of money set up by Apple and a few other companies to support and grow companies that are contributing to the iOS ecosystem. It's been growing along with Apple's platform, and now the fund has made its first contribution to an enterprise developer. Apperian is a company that helps enterprises create and deploy their own mobile apps, and it's picked up $9.5 million in a round of funding that includes money from the iFund. We've covered the use of iPhone and iPad in business quite a bit, and Apperian sits squarely in that wheelhouse, consulting with various companies on how to create and securely distribute their own mobile apps. iFund's Matt Murphy says that Apperian is riding the wave of mobile devices that are showing up in the corporate workplace, and that "Apperian's solution is perfectly timed to help enterprises rollout and manage all their applications across their employee base and its wide variety of smart devices." Sounds like a solid plan. It's excellent to see Apple's platform growing in all kinds of different directions.
Booyah raises $20m, aims for 6m users
I've lately been guessing that Booyah might eventually hook up with Ngmoco, since they're both iPhone gaming/app companies with somewhat similar goals that could help each other out. But it looks like Booyah doesn't need any help any more -- it's just raised a whopping $20 million from investors in a new round of funding. Booyah was originally included in the iFund investment, but that contribution pales in comparison to this one, which sets Booyah up as one of the heaviest single-brand hitters in the app market. Booyah is made up of a few ex-Blizzard developers (we interviewed CEO Keith Lee back at GDC), and the growth of its second app, MyTown, has been amazing -- a little while back, they said the app was growing by 100,000 users a week, and they're aiming to hit 6 million users by the end of the summer (presumably with a new app coming as well, not all inside just MyTown). Their user investment is huge as well -- they say that average usage of the app was over an hour a day, and they're now hitting 8.3 million virtual item impressions a day. Along with selling virtual items, they're also putting together high-profile partnerships with companies like H&M and The Travel Channel. And they've done all of this while still standing in the shadow of more well-known check-in services like Gowalla and Foursquare. There's a heck of a lot of activity and potential coming out of Booyah, and with this big chunk of funding, they're set up to do some more amazing things with their next app. We'll have to keep an eye on them.
iFund doubles to $200 million, supporting Ngmoco, Booyah, and others on the iPad
The iFund has been one of the driving forces behind some of the biggest names in iPhone development, so it's not a surprise at all that the investors are expanding their money pool and oversight to include the iPad as well. They're opening up the funding to a full $200 million (double what the original iFund offered to iPhone companies), and they've already got a whole slate of apps lined up from big iPhone companies like Ngmoco, Booyah, and Shazam. There will undoubtedly be a lot of successful apps on the iPad, but these are probably the biggest no brainers we'll see. It is important to note that these are all iPhone-specific companies. While there are lots of companies on the App Store that are doing iPhone as "just another platform" or have the iPhone as part of their overall strategy, the companies spotlighted by iFund all tend to be companies who are focusing on the iPhone (and now the iPad) as their business. Just as the iFund likely paid off for their iPhone investments, odds are good that they'll see the same result on the iPad. We'll have to wait and see.
Kleiner Perkins iFund doubles to $200m, investing in iPad apps from Shazam, ngmoco and more
Apple said it expects the iPad to be a "second gold rush" of app development as consumers rush to add content to their new devices, and it looks like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers agrees: the venture capital firm just announced that it's expanding the iFund to $200 million to invest in iPad app development. If you'll recall, the iFund was originally announced alongside the iPhone OS 2.0 SDK, and provided $100 million in total investments to 14 iPhone app developers like Shazam, ngmoco, and Shopkick -- companies responsible for 18 apps that have hit the App Store Top 10. Keep in mind that this money was promised before the iPhone App Store was even launched -- so given how that bet paid off, it's not surprising that KPCB's decided to double down on the iPad, which looks like it'll have even higher app prices. Along with the announcement, some iFund devs announced the following iPad apps: Pinger: Doodle Buddy and Starsmash Booyah: MyTown, a popular location-based game Shazam: Shazam, optimized for the new screen size, ngmoco: Flick Fishing, a new MMO called CastleCraft, Charadium (described as "massively multiplayer Pictionary"), God Finger, We Rule, WarpGate, and one more we missed -- anyone catch it? GOGII: TextPlus Nothing too surprising here, but it looks like the heavy hitters are going to be on the iPad bandwagon from day one -- and pushing hard for this thing to be a success.
Smule raises $3.9 million in funding
There's money in them thar App Store! Smule, the company behind the popular Ocarina and Zephyr apps for the iPhone, has informed us that they raised a whopping $3.9 million from a round of venture funding led by a firm named Granite Ventures. That's a lot of capital -- while a lot of people are aiming to get their hands in the cookie jar in a big way in the burgeoning economy of the App Store, $3.9 million is the biggest single payout we've seen yet (the iFund actually paid out $100 million, but that was split among various companies and people, and we haven't heard specifics on exactly what they got). The company brags that they've attracted over one million users already, and that they will use the funding to "help people experience music as it's never been experienced before and in turn find new ways of bringing people together." We can't help but wish them well -- hopefully we'll see more high quality apps in the App Store, and hopefully that'll pay off for both investors and consumers.
NGmoco announces new games, will publish Rolando
Ngmoco, the strangely-named iPhone gaming startup that's one of the recipients of the iFund, has announced their first three planned games for the iPhone.First of all, they're planning to act as publishers for the Rolando game we've been so excited about, a puzzle platformer with touch and physics elements. That could be one reason for Rolando's delay, actually -- hopefully the new partnership will end up being worth the wait. And they have two other "fast apps" in progress -- one is called MazeFinger (and it does what it sounds like, lets you run your finger around a maze), and the other is Topple, a block-building game that looks like it has some physics in there as well. Both of the smaller games were apparently conceived by Ngmoco, and then passed off to iPhone developers, while Rolando, of course, was created by handcircus.MazeFinger and Topple are scheduled for this month, and they should be priced to go at 99 cents. Rolando now has a date of "Holiday 2008," and there's no price quoted yet. But Ngmoco is definitely making a strong play for getting some premier games in the App Store -- we'll be watching to see how these do and what else they've got planned.
The iFund's VCs start blogging
When Apple first announced the iFund a while back, the idea seemed pretty opaque by its very nature -- the plan was to invest $100 million in people and companies who were interested in developing innovating apps for the iPhone. But that could be anybody, and though we've heard a few peeps from them since, the whole process hasn't been super clear.That's probably why the iFund people are stepping up themselves to provide a little clarity: they've started an iFundVC blog to explain the whole process and (hopefully) keep us up to date on just what the $100 million is getting them. The first post gets us up to date on who's getting this cash -- apparently ngmoco is one of the groups being iFunded, as is a text-messaging social platform (your guess is as good as ours) called GOGII, and another secret project launching next year.They also discuss what's gone on with the App Store so far, and say that they're committed to pushing the quality of apps in the store forward. We're all for that -- hopefully in this case, more money will equal better apps. That doesn't always (ever?) work, but somebody's got to try it.
App Store on track to do a billion items by 2009
You read that right -- it took the iTunes Store a few years, but as Roughly Drafted has calculated, Apple's App Store is on track, even if growth stops right now, to hit a billion apps served up by 2009. Obviously not all of those are paid apps, but by any count, that's a ton of applications dumped onto iPhones and iPod touches around the world.That said, the App Store is far from perfect -- Apple's approval process has come under fire lately for a lack of transparency, among other issues, and of course the iTunes Store didn't have the benefit of most of its content being free. Of course the App Store is working to get apps on phones, but there are lots of kinks to be worked out, including just how "open" Apple is letting the store be, questions of quality over the software that does make it in, and just whether it's worth developers' time to deliver these applications anyway.Just as the iFund guys noted, however, we're only in the first few steps of a marathon here. There's a long way to go, but already, in terms of an iPhone software distribution system, the App Store is a huge success.[via Ars]
Whrrl first app to get iFund cash infusion
Kleiner Perkins Claufield & Byers' so-called iFund, the $100 million jackpot being doled out to help support development on the iPhone that was launched in cooperation with Apple back in March, officially has its first pair of recipients. The lucky two are Whrrl -- a social mapping service that allows its users to mark and rate restaurants, entertainment, and events -- and iControl, a home automation app for doing the usual range of light, sound, and appliance control tasks that one might want to do from a handheld device. It really is like winning the lottery, too -- Kleiner claims to have received proposals from over 1,700 companies hoping to get a piece of the iFund pie, but besides these two, the fund has only made an offer to one other project so far. Stingy![Via MacRumors]
iFund taken out for a Whrrl
At the iPhone SDK event back in March one of the most curious announcements was the existence of the $100 million iFund. Famed silicon valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers established it to "fund innovators developing applications, services, and components for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch platform." Now BusinessWeek is reporting the first two public iFund recipients: Whrrl and iControl.Whrrl is a kind of location based social networking service that allows you to "discover places, movies, and events by seeing where your friends are going." You can read (and leave) reviews of stores, restaurants, etc. Unfortunately, it's limited to 17 metro areas but they say new cities are being added regularly.iControl produces home monitoring and control products. So your iPhone would allow you to control home automation products (e.g. climate system, lighting, etc.) as well as monitor in home cameras and other security systems.Kleiner Perkins reports receiving over 1700 applications for the iFund and in addition to these two has made an offer to another, as yet undisclosed, startup. They are "seriously considering another 10."
PosiMotion's G-Fi: another WiFi GPS accessory for the iPhone
Although we just saw the Nav N Go / Gomite prototype demonstrated yesterday, a company called PosiMotion claims that it has the "world's first wireless GPS" accessory for the iPhone. To prove it, they've launched a two-page website. Fishing for some of that iFund dough are we boys? Anyway, according to the site the G-Fi WiFi GPS receiver will support the iPhone and iPod touch and is expected to ship this summer. Really though, how much confidence will VCs have in an upstart still running on the ol' Cingular network?
iFund: $100M for iPhone/iPod touch devs
One of the most surprising announcements from today's Apple shindig (at least to me) was the iFund from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. This $100 million fund will invest in companies, large or small, that want to develop innovative apps for both the iPhone and the iPod touch.The iFund will invest anywhere from $100,000 to $15 million in funds for iPhone development. Check out the FAQ for more details.
