KPCB iFund Status Update

Chi-Hua Chien from KPCB spoke about the status of their $100M iFund at iPhone Dev Camp 3 last night.  Key points, about $45M invested.  4000 proposals, 250 companies met, etc, etc, etc, and the bottomline 7 companies funded.  The list:

1. Pelago – 2 guys in Seattle
2. Gogii – ex-Jamdat
3. iControl – more like a Series B (or C?)
4. ngmoco:)
5. Booyah – ex-Blizzard people
6. hush-hush mobshop – 1 guy working for about a year at KP’s office
7. can’t tell you or I’ll have to kill you

The “biggie” categories iFund is interested in are:

• Mobile Commerce
• Real-Time Everywhere and Anywhere
• Local Search
• Healthcare – funded a company that has a real time monitoring of health signs
• Augmented Reality
• Real-World Gaming

And he (as well as most VCs I know) are looking for the following in any proposals:

1. Market
2. Team – proven team. See list of funded companies above.
3. Technology – defensible. Patents help in the long run, but having “hard to do” technology is what helps you in the near term.
4. Product
5. Business Model – last but not least.  Dotcom is so 90s.