It seems like every time we've got a new developer platform, there needs to be a fund to invest in and entice developers to create awesome new applications for it. First there was the iFund. Then there was the fbFund. And the Twilio Fund. And the Glasshole Fund. And now, one venture firm has decided to put aside money for a fund that invests just in developers who make applications for the Leap Motion gesture-based controller.
Highland Capital Partners, which is already an investor in Leap Motion, has committed another $25 million to back the young startup. To do so, it's established the Leap Fund, which is designed to find and put money into innovative startups that are building new applications that take advantage of its 3D gesture control.
So what kind of problems could applications using the Leap Motion Controller solve? According to the press release, Highland is looking for developers, entrepreneurs, and businesses "solving human scale problems" in sectors like education, security, healthcare IT, big data, and productivity, among others.
While writing checks big and small — depending on the quality of the team and how big or small of a problem they are trying to tackle — Highland will also provide guidance, mentorship and other resources to help them scale.
The announcement comes just about a month before Leap is planning to start shipping units to those who have pre-ordered the motion control device and making it available in Best Buy stores. The startup has also done deals with HP and Asus to get embedded on future hardware that they have coming out.
Already, more than 65,000 developers have expressed interest in building applications for the Leap Motion's app store, called Airspace. It gave away more than 10,000 units to developers to build the first generation of applications for general release, and says it has hundreds of thousands of pre-orders for the $79 motion gesture device.
Leap Motion provides the world's most powerful and sensitive touch-free 3-D motion-control and motion-sensing technology. Leap Motion's proprietary technology, invented by co-founder David Holz, can track the movement of both hands and all 10 fingers with up to 1/100th millimeter accuracy and no visible latency. The Leap Motion Controller is a small USB device available for pre-order at $79.99. The Leap Motion technology can easily embed into other consumer and enterprise hardware. Leap Motion allows anyone to use natural...
Founded in 1988, Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm focused on putting the entrepreneur first. With offices in Silicon Valley, Boston and Shanghai, Highland has raised over $3 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 225 companies, resulting in category-defining businesses across consumer and enterprise technology. Investments include 2U, Ask Jeeves, Bromium, Calxeda, Leap Motion, LevelUp, Lycos, MapQuest, Nebula, QD Vision, Qihoo 360, Quattro Wireless, RentJuice, Rent the Runway, Starent Networks, Sybase, Violin Memory,...
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