Chch iPhone apps attract Silicon Valley interest

Christchurch software firm Polar Bear Farm is looking to develop applications for the New Zealand iPhone market and says it has attracted the interest of Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Co-founder Guy Horrocks says there have been more than one million downloads of its first two applications for the iPhone, Search and ShowTime, and Polar Bear Farm's website attracted five million hits in February.

He says it has been approached by a few big New Zealand companies to develop applications for the iPhone, which will be sold by Vodafone as early as July. "We don't want to just focus on the international market and realise we missed opportunities back home."

Polar Bear Farm will attend the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference this month in San Francisco, where developers are paired with "high-up" Apple employees to work on their products.

The company will also meet with clients and potential investors in Silicon Valley.

"The venture capital firms are pretty massive, they're the type of people who have invested in Google and Facebook. We've talked to a couple who have expressed interest in the last few months."

Polar Bear Farm is looking for an investor with contacts and experience rather than just money. "That's probably why we're not looking at a New Zealand investor. It's really key for us that they are in the heart of things in Silicon Valley."

Mr Horrocks says Polar Bear Farm has been cleared by Apple to sell applications through its AppStore, and will release five new products when the store is launched this month.

Twinkle, an application entered in the Apple Design Awards, was developed for a Silicon Valley client and allows users to post updates so friends and users in the same location can tell each other what they are doing.

The company is also setting up a group to mentor Kiwi software start-ups, the details of which will be announced in July.