First Successful iFund Bids Revealed

by Eric March on June 1, 2008 at 8:46 pm

You may remember during Macworld ‘08 that venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers created a $100,000,000 “iFund” to inspire and fund third party iPhone development. Now it looks like they’ve just announced the first companies they plan to be funding: Pelago and iControl Networks.

Pelago’s first application out of the gate is Whrrl, which is a location-specific application intended to allow you to find out points of interest in your immediate area — hotels, restaurants, and so on. While we’ve seen this sort of thing before, Whrrl distinguishes itself in the pack by adding a location-specific social aspect, where you can get details, reviews and star ratings for whatever you’re looking for by friends and contacts in your immediate area. To use Pelago’s own words, it “allows you to discover the world through the eyes of your friends and other people you trust. Discover places, movies, and events by seeing where your friends are going. Share experiences with friends. Track the places you’ve been and the places you want to go. Share your location with friends on the go.” Whrrl is currently in open beta, so you can give it a try right now on your iPhone or iPod Touch by pointing Mobile Safari to http://m.whrrl.com and getting started.

iControl Networks is a firm that aims to bring you a new level of whole-home security by offering up network-based video monitoring and control that is accessible through another connected computer or your iPhone. It is intended to be resold as a value-added service by home security companies, and will not only give you remote viewing of your home security camera feeds, but also let you control connected aspects of your home, such as lighting, air conditioning, electronic blinds/shades, and so on. You can read the full press release here.

iControl Networks managed to secure a healthy $15.5M slab of the pie from KPCB. There’s no information on how much Pelago managed to grab, but they are being funded by three investors, so they’re pretty well covered, too.

With probably less than 80% of the iFund left, it will be interesting to see who else they pick as their star players. If Pelagio and iControl Networks are indicative of the sort of things KPCB are funding, things are going to be very interesting indeed.

(Source: Business Week, via MacWorld)