funding for developers

Excerpt

Developers have many ways to fund their work -- personal bank accounts, friends and family, or seeking investment from other venture-capital firms. Most Apple app development is self-financed, says analyst Munster, with the average developer generating revenue of around $40,000 yearly for their wares.

In the Club

It's not easy getting into the iFund. So far, only 14 companies have been accepted out of 6,000 submissions.

Excerpt

Kleiner Perkins’s iFund is a $100 million fund to invest in startups building applications for the iPhone.

Startups that wish to apply for funding can fill out an online application here. That information, which includes contact information, founder bios, the business plan, demos, financial information, etc. is then dumped into a database for review.

That data was accidentally published on the web by Kleiner Perkins’ former hosting provider, Meteora Technologies Group, in a SQL file, which is easily readable in a text editor or other application. The file was then indexed by Google and found in a query on one of the companies (the guys from Fruux found it). Applications from 588 companies are in the file (Google has cached an incomplete version of the file here). A quick perusal shows very detailed information from each of these companies.

Excerpt
IPad Developers Get $100 Mil Funding Pool
By Brian Deagon
Wed., March 31, '10 3:50 PM ET
Tags: IPad - IPhone - Kleiner Perkins - Steve Jobs

Venture capitalist extraordinaire John Doerr seemed a bit loopy in expressing his views of the Apple (AAPL) iPad on Wednesday.

“I’ve touched it, I caressed it. I hope I can sleep with it Saturday night,” said Doerr, one of the big-name partners at big-name venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, during a press conference in Menlo Park, Calif.

The iPad is perhaps the most anticipated tech product since the iPhone. The tablet computer goes on sale Saturday.

“We believe it will rule the world,” said Doerr, who spoke of the iPad using revolutionary terms. “It will transform gaming, education, health care and commerce. It will produce a third renaissance in software.”

Doerr used the gathering to announce that KPCB would add another $100 million to iFund, a venture capital fund it created two years ago. The initial $100 million fund was set up to invest in developers of applications for the iPhone and, later, the iPod Touch. The original $100 million fund is now fully invested in 14 companies, which have been supported by an additional $330 million from follow-on investors, KPCB said.

The new $100 million in funding will be targeted at developers of iPad applications. During the press conference, five such developers were featured: Pinger, Booyah, Shazam, Ngmoco and Gogii. All plan to have iPad apps ready to go at liftoff.

Neil Young, CEO of Ngmoco, which makes iPhone games, plans to make seven games available for iPad.

“We’re incredibly excited about the opportunity with the iPad,” Young said. “It will revolutionize gaming in the home like the iPhone did on the go.”

Booyah will bring its popular MyTown app, described as “real-world Monopoly,” to the iPad. Shazam will bring its music discovery service. Gogii will bring its text messaging apps.

Also attending the event was Ron Akamoto, Apple’s vice president of developer relations, who described the iPad as “beautiful, interactive and engaging.”

KPCB said companies supported by iFund have more than 20 applications in development for the iPad, with 11 of them available right away.