Kleiner Perkins’ iFund Invests In Five Startups; All To Go Public In Seven To Eight Years
      By Shaun Zelber,  August 25th, 2008 :: News & Events

The $100 million iFund investment pool, created by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has invested in five iPhone start-ups, NYT reports in a profile piece on Matt Murphy who heads up the endeavor.

Pelago, the parent of mobile location-based service Whrrl, received an investment from KPCB before the iFund was created, and then was transferred over. The next three were: iControl, a company that enables users to monitor homes while away, and Gogii and Ngmoco, two mobile game companies. A fifth unnamed investment is expected to be announced soon.

Whrrl has already launched its application on the iPhone, with Gogii, Ngmoco and the unnamed company expected to launch this fall. iControl will take longer, and aims for early next year. Murphy said KPCB has already received 2,500 business plans for potential iPhone application start-ups. While iFund investments can range from $100,000 to $15 million, KPCB has invested $5 million to $8 million in each of its first five. Murphy added that the goal is for the companies to go public in seven to eight years.

Murphy also talked about how frustrating the mobile space has been until only recently. Murphy: “I was frustrated along with everyone else about how slowly everything was moving…Until the iPhone came out and you got to use one, it was hard to imagine how impactful it could be.”

Murphy also did an interview with CNBC earlier this week. Here’s the video clip.

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