Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » KPCB iFund

Social Navigation Company Waze Raises $30 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:24:25 +0000

Waze is a social navigation company that has raised $30 million in funding. Investors in this round include Horizons Ventures Hong Kong (Li Ka-shing’s private venture investments), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and the iFund. Waze has raised a total of over $55 million thus far.

John Malloy of Blue Run Ventures and Jason Wong of Horizon Ventures has joined the board of directors at Waze. Mary Meeker has joined Waze as a strategic advisor and board observer at Waze as well.

Waze started in 2009 and has free apps on the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7. The app has turn-by-turn directions and uses user data for building maps. Waze users are reporting a traffic jam every 4.2 seconds.

Waze said that the company plans on expanding internationally. Waze has seen some accelerated growth in Spain, Mexico, Malaysia, and Brazil.

Groupon Acquires Pelango, Makers Of Whrrl Mobile App

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:29:25 +0000

Pelango, the mobile application development company that created Whrrl, has been acquired by Groupon. Whrrl allows users to check in to locations and discover new places. Pelango founder Jeff Holden will become an executive of Groupon’s product development team as part of the acquisition. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

“We’ve always liked CEO Jeff Holden, the Whrrl team and the technology they’ve developed. Their obsession with real-world serendipitous discovery, or Anti-Search, is core to Groupon’s mission. It’s about discovering what you didn’t know you didn’t know, right in your own backyard,” stated Groupon CEO Andrew Mason.

Pelango was founded in 2006 and raised venture capital funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the KPCB iFund, Bezos Expeditions, T-Venture, Trilogy Equity Partners, and Reliance Technology Ventures. Before starting Pelango, Holden worked at Amazon for 8 years. He was the SVP of Consumer Websites Worldwide. Many of Pelango’s team will be rolled into Groupon’s future Grouponnovations division. Holden will be moving to Chicago as part of the acquisition.

[AllThingsD]

Kleiner Perkins Ups Apple Development Fund (iFund) To $200 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:30:13 +0000

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner John Doerr hosted an event today at the Sandhill Hotel in Menlo Park, California to announce their involvement with the Apple iPad. Kleiner Perkins announced that the venture capital’s iFund will go from $100 million to $200 million.

Kleiner Perkins first introduced the iFund in March 2008 in order to encourage start-ups to make iPhone apps. Some of the companies that received funding from the iFund include Booyah, Shazam, Pinger, and ngmoco.

The companies that have funding in the iFund have seem about a total of 100 million downloads according to Doerr. Those companies themselves are expected to make about $100 million in revenues this year. [TechCrunch]

iPhone Application Company Booyah Raises $4.5 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:56:39 +0000

Booyah is an iPhone application development startup company that is based in Palo Alto, Calif. The company was founded by Keith Lee, Brian Morrisroe and Sam Christiansen, who have all had some sort of gaming experience. Lee was one of the head developers for the Diablo III franchise. Booyah recently announced that they have raised $4.5 million in Series A funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’s iFund initiative.

“We were immediately compelled by the promise of Booyah and the background of the founders,” stated Kleiner Perkins partner Matt Murphy in a press release. “The iFund was created to help build the most promising and innovative businesses that utilize the discrete capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch. Booyah is a terrific example.”

Last month Kleiner Perkins invested in Ngmoco, another iPhone gaming company. Booyah has not announced when their product will be launching, but it is expected to revolve around MMO. Booyah currently has beta sign ups on their website.