Rapleaf wants to see more personalization apps built on its Rapleaf Personalization API. To support the expansion, the company will provide grants and services to companies via its just-launched $1 million fund. The investment approach is quickly joining contests and hackathons as ways for providers to woo developers.
Most awards from the Rapleaf Personalization Fund will be between $5,000 to $15,000, with Rapleaf taking no equity. Rapleaf expects first-time grants to be mostly data–that is, free access to its expanded service. Rapleaf’s Jamie Ryan said the company expects to invest cash for subsequent grants, from either Rapleaf or fund partners, which includes VCs and a handful of other investment organizations. “It is our hope that the fund will help connect developers, students, VC’s and other partners within our community,” Ryan said.
Email marketing company MailChimp has a $1 million cash fund, which it announced a year ago to encourage development with its MailChimp API. Similarly, 500 Startups created a Twilio Fund, which invests around $10,000 for a 1% stake in a company that uses the Twilio API. In March we covered 7 Twilio Fund winners.
The Rapleaf API provides age, gender and location for any email address for free. For additional fields, which include income, marital status and occupation, Rapleaf currently charges $0.01 per field match.
There are certainly a number of applications for this type of data, both useful and creepy. Rapleaf supplied a few ideas to get developers started:
The RapLeaf developer playground (account required) is a good way to get a feel for the service.
Enable Personalization for Consumers
Email List and Campaign management service
Telephony service
Rapleaf Personalization API Profile
Email personalization service
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2 Responses to “Personalization API Rapleaf Ponies Up $1 Million to Support Developers”
at 9:25 am
[...] has just announced the first round winners of the Rapleaf Personalization Fund. The no equity fund was announced last month and mostly provides services from Rapleaf and partner companies. Among the first round of winners [...]
at 4:05 pm
[...] wrote about the company when it announced its $1 million developer fund:http://blog.programmableweb.com/…This answer .Please specify the necessary improvements. Edit Link Text Show answer summary [...]