The Founders Fund and Accel Partners have created a $10 million fund for Facebook applications called FBFund, Mark Zuckerberg just announced at the TechCrunch40 conference in San Francisco. The funding will be given out in grants of $25,000 to $250,000.
Rather than equity, the two firms will have a right of first refusal if the companies end up surviving long enough to raise a venture round. Facebook is not putting up any of the cash, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Vice President of Product Marketing and Operations Chamath Palihapitiya will be evaluating applicants, along with Peter Thiel of the Founders Fund and Jim Breyer of Accel, and investors Rajeev Motwani, Josh Kopelman, and Reid Hoffman.
This new fund is going to crimp the plans of other funds that have similar ambitions, as they will be competing with a Facebook-approved investment vehicle.
Any application developer can apply by emailing platform@facebook.com, with anything from an idea to an already-launched application.
The idea, said Zuckerberg, is for developers to be able to see if their ideas pass muster with the members of the “great distribution vehicle” of Facebook. That is, instead of passing muster with the inhabitants of the conference rooms on Sand Hill Road.
9 comments so far
2:29 AM PT
Thanks for the info. I’ve now mailed my Facebook app idea after seeing this post. Waiting with fingers crossed for the funding to arrive ;)
1:23 PM PT
[...] they proved me right by putting some money behind it. According to several sites, Mark Zuckerberg announced at TechCrunch40 that the Facebook Founders and Accel Partners have [...]
9:35 PM PT
Yahoo’s internal build vs. buy calculation hinges on $10 million. Maybe if Fb/VC figured they could invest in 50 ideas and get one worth acquiring, they’d be ahead of the game.
11:37 AM PT
[...] Facebook crece sin parar, cuando se habla que puede “valer” 10.000 millones de dólares; los fundadores premiarán con 10 millones a las mejores aplicaciones en Facebook. [...]
9:34 PM PT
[...] application developers , Not doing a revenue split deal with Application developers and finally Facebook Fund are nothing short of a Masterstroke [...]
2:30 AM PT
[...] The fbFund was unveiled at the TechCrunch 40 conference last month, and as part of the announcement, Facebook backers Accel Partners and Founders’ Fund earmarked $10 million in new funds to give out to app developers as “grants” of between $25,000 and $250,000 each. “It has become clear that we will receive proposals which contain similar or even identical ideas. As a result, and in order to protect other developers and us from claims that we or anyone else copied material without the creator’s permission, unless we agree otherwise in writing, we can’t promise that any materials or information you submit here will be kept confidential, or specifically that we or others might not develop similar or identical products or services. To make sure that everyone understands the conditions of submitting a grant application, we will not review any materials you have sent via email, and any materials you may have sent have been deleted.” [...]
10:01 AM PT
[...] within the social network, Facebook seemed to have found a a bit of gold. With a built-in audience, developers flocked to the platform. Users loved the new apps, especially how nicely they were integrated with the platform. And [...]
9:01 PM PT
[...] In September, marquee firms The Founders Fund and Accel Partners (an investor in Facebook itself) launched a $10 million fund for Facebook applications called [...]
9:30 PM PT
[...] wenig Loyalität und damit auch nur mit einem kurzfristigen Erfolg. Hier noch einige Blogposts: von Gigaom von mappingtheweb (bereits im Juli [...]
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