Facebook offers $100,000 to iPhone developers

Technically, it’s fbFund that’s offering the money, a fund backed by Facebook, Index and Founders Fund.

TechCrunch reports that this year, fbFund will be investing $100k in an unspecified number of Facebook app developers chosen from a shortlist of 50. The successful applicants will get the cash and the chance to participate in an incubator program in Silicon Valley in return for equity.

The focus for this third round of investments is on “Web and iPhone app developers leveraging Facebook Connect”. The marriage of Apple’s accessible platform with the network of friends that Facebook Connect offers will, I think, be incredibly powerful. It offers developers a way to bypass the challenges of achieving a visible position in the AppStore by encouraging them to use their social graph. It worked for Scrabulous when Facebook launched, and now seems likely to work for iPhone developers.

So if you’re interested, you can apply on Facebook. Deadline is 20th April, and applicants must not have received any formal VC money to date.