Despite Antenna-gate and Android-boom, it appears as though venture capitalists and angel investors are still pouring money into startups developing iPhone and iPad apps. That’s the findings of a recent CB Insights report that examines the investment in the Apple ecosystem over the last 12 months.
According to CB Insights, investment in pure play iPhone and iPad startups has grown over 220% over the last year as compared to the previous year.
“Pure play” companies are those whose sole focus is building applications for iPhone and iPad. Between 2008 and 2009, there were 11 investment rounds over 10 companies, with almost $38 million raised. This year, over the same time period, there were 17 investment rounds distributed over 16 companies for a total investment of $120.6 million.
The average deal was $7.5 million, up from an average of $3.4 million in the previous year.
Almost 60% of the deals were led solely by VCs and 18% by angels. Interestingly, VCs and angels partnered in about 25% of the investments in pure play iPhone and iPad startups.
The CB Insights report does not give a breakdown of the types of apps these startups make, and as it’s focused solely on pure play startups, it doesn’t account for developers working across platforms. Nonetheless these figures will be interesting to watch over next few months to gauge how investor dollars (and consumer dollars) react to the smartphone market.
