Cloudflare has recently launched a new app development platform for developers for building apps with the help of Cloudflare ecosystem. Along with the brand new
Cloudflare Apps, the company has announced that it has raised a huge Developer Fund of $100 million from the earliest investors - Venrock, Pelion, and NEA.
Image Source: cloudflare.com
Now, developers can build robust apps taking the full advantage of
Cloudflare network, place those apps on Cloudflare Apps Platform, and add new functionality like map or form, even without writing any code.
The CEO and co-founder, Matthew Prince, explained
“Cloudflare sits in front of more than 6 million customers’ internet properties. We run the world’s largest networks with 115 data centers scattered around the world. We have a huge amount of traffic that passes through the network, and as the traffic passes, there are ways [for developers] to modify it in various ways.”
Prince also revealed that the idea behind this new move actually came from its investors who wanted to offer the developers a complete ecosystem from developing applications to deploy them, by harnessing the power of Cloudflare in it. The $100 million fund will help the developers getting capital in order to turn their vision into reality and help the web developer community world-wide.
Image Source: cloudflare.com
The company had acquired a small firm Eager in December, and used its technology to make the newly-launched app platform more developer-friendly with an API to develop against and the ability to prototype very quickly.
“Access to users isn't enough to build a great company. You also need access to capital to fund your development. That's why we're excited to announce that Cloudflare's earliest investors — Venrock, Pelion, and NEA — have teamed up to create the $100 million. Developers who create applications using Cloudflare's Apps Platform may apply for venture capital funding through the Developer Fund. The venture capitalists who are participating in the Developer Fund understand the scale of Cloudflare, our commitment to the platform, and the opportunity that companies have to build impactful applications leveraging our global infrastructure.”
This is also worth-noticing that this is not the first attempt of company to launch an app store. In 2011 also, Cloudflare launched an app store which the company closed after sometime due to shifting priorities for the growing company at the time.