Alert: Kleiner Perkins announces $100M iFund
Some of our VC readers may have missed the news, because it was buried somewhat in our larger story today about Apple’s iPhone news.
But Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley’s more respected VC firms, announced a massive fund to spur the development of applications for the iPhone. This “iFund” will dish out $100 million to developers, no doubt exciting developers even more about creating applications for the iPhone. You can submit an application to the fund here.
Kleiner’s John Doerr made the announcement. It is significant because Kleiner has focused most of its energy on clean-tech and pandemic initiatives lately, and has been seen by some as veering away from investments in information technology. The iFund continues Kleiner’s history of making bold initiatives to bet on platforms. You’ll remember its bet on Java technologies more than a decade ago, with it launched a Java fund (see our story about the Java Fund here).
The firm said the iFund will be led by KPCB partner Matt Murphy in collaboration with partners Doerr, Bill Joy, Randy Komisar, Ted Schlein, Chi-Hua Chien and Ellen Pa.
Kleiner said its existing companies Pelago, Dash, GOGII, and Pinger will collaborate closely with the iFund initiative.
Next Story: Jeff Gerstmann to launch Giantbomb.com for game fans
Previous Story: iRise gets $20M to mock-up your software
About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
