The Silicon Valley venture capital firm announced the Sequoia Open Source Fellowship last May, but it was initially offered on an invite-only basis with a single recipient to shout about so far. Moving forward, Sequoia is inviting developers to apply for a stipend that will cover their costs for up to a year so they can work full-time on the project - without giving up any equity or ownership.
But these various funding initiatives have little to do with pure altruism. The companies ponying up the capital typically identify the open source software they rely on most, and then allocate funds accordingly - it's ultimately about protecting their own business, while also currying favor with a community on which they need on-side, and which they may even wish to hire in the future.
[
add
]
[
|
|
...
]