Venture Capitalists are always looking for opportunities to invest in technologies that will be important in the years to come. Many of these investment mavens have realized that mobile is the wave of the present and future however getting their hands on top developers in the mobile space is tough. The competition is so fierce that Chamath Palihapitiya has put $20 million of his own money into Toronto-based mobile development shop, Xtreme Labs.
Palihapitiya, currently of Social+Capital Partnership, has agreed to provide the funds over the next three years and will be able to utilize 100 mobile developers presently at the Canadian firm. The new majority stake holder of Xtreme Labs has gotten access to a team that has created apps for Microsoft, Groupon, IAC, GroupMe and Rypple.
Palihapitiya led the mobile team at Facebook and brought in the Xtreme Lab team to work on some projects. He has known the CEO of Xtreme Lab, Amar Varma, from their college days in Canada. After his experience with the Canadian firm he followed them closely as they released over 300 apps with 300 million downloads to date.
Palihapitiya talked to AllThingsD about why he put in $6 million into the firm immediately and has promised $20 million over the next three years. The access to the quality mobile developers would help out with Social+Capital projects and give rise to new start-ups. Xtreme Lab’s open-source framework, which is currently under development, would also increase its scope and audience. The company makes money by developing mobile apps for clients that start in the six figures and the company cranks out a hundred projects a year.
Source: AllThingsD
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