Facebook Has No Plans to Continue fbFund

Facebook’s in-house business incubator and mini financier, fbFund, appears to be mothballed. After two years of funding companies building on Facebook’s developer platform, the program’s success has been dwarfed by the massive new social gaming market, and by the growing ecosystem of marketing service companies around its performance advertising and Page products.

After noticing that the company has been completely quiet about fbFund plans so far this year, we asked it about its plans. “At this time we have no plans for future iterations of the program,” a company spokesperson tells us, “but we will keep you posted as soon as we have anything new to share.” The company also says that it will “continue to support innovation from the startup community through initiatives like the developer garage program.”

The fbFund, administered by Facebook venture investors Accel Partners and Founders Fund, gave small amounts of grants (in year one) and investments (in year two) to chosen companies, along with mentoring help. It backed a number of companies that have been acquired, or are still around today, including Wildfire, NutshellMail, and Kontagent.

But now, everyone is moving on — notably, Dave McClure, the Founders Fund angel investor who ran the fbFund program last year, has just raised his own new fund, called 500 Startups. “I’m iterating on the concept,” he said, referring to the large number of smaller investments, plus mentoring, that he’ll provide companies.

Inside Social Apps

Mediabistro Event

Facebook Joins Inside Social Apps Event

In the past few weeks, we’ve added industry insiders from Facebook, Chartboost, Tango, Tilting Point, PlayHaven, Paltalk, and more to the speaking roster of Inside Social Apps, June 6-7 in San Francisco. You’ll learn strategies for success with experts like Deb Liu, Product Manager at Facebook. Register now and save $200. 

Leave a Reply

One Response to “Facebook Has No Plans to Continue fbFund”

  1. Y Combinator Partners with Facebook to Support "Deeply Social" Startups says:

    [...] once operated its own startup program, the fbFund, but in July said that it had "no plans for future iterations of the [...]

interested in advertising with inside facebook?

Social Media Jobs
of the Day

Web Developer

Mullen
Winston Salem, NC

Director of Social Media

Moosylvania
St. Louis, MO

Featured Company

Join leading companies like this one and recruit from the nation's top media job seekers on the Mediabistro Job Board. Every job post comes with our satisfaction guarantee. Learn More
 

Our Sponsors

Also from Inside Network:   AppData - Facebook & iOS Application Stats   PageData - Engagement Data on Facebook Pages   Facebook Marketing Bible   Inside Network Research
WebMediaBrands
Mediabistro | SemanticWeb | Inside Network
Jobs | Education | Research | Events | News
Advertise | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Copyright 2012 WebMediaBrands Inc. All rights reserved.