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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.
