The BlackBerry Partners Fund, a $150 million VC fund co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners, has announced its first three investments:
The first is for buzzd, a geo-aware social network that also doubles as a location information guide. BlackBerry Partners Fund participated in a $3.2 million Series A Round, along with Greycroft Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, and Monitor Ventures.
The second is for Digby, a mobile ecommerce company, that closed a $5.5 million Series B round with BBPF and existing investors.
The third is for WorldMate, a company that produces software for travelers, offering tools for trip management and information lookup. The company closed an $8 million Series C round with BBPF, AMC Communications, and Motorola Ventures.
The race is on for mobile platform supremacy, and venture capitalists are eager to get in on the action. The BlackBerry Partners Fund faces off with the the Kleiner Perkins $100 million iFund, which sets aside money exclusively for iPhone developers. Google has also initiated its own funding competition with the $10 Million Android Challenge last year.
time to go and makes some java apps for blackberry and collect that cash incentive/vc. the google apps that i saw that were finalist for 10 million dollar fund didnt impressive me one bit i dont care what ryan waggoner thinks of them . it seems everyone just all but forgot about blackberry and majority of talk now is about the iphone and g1.blackberry has the market share over both if i am not mistaken.these apps listed here looked way better then any of andriod app winners to me.
Digby has yet to impress me, at least on previous blackberry models.
i heard it somehere lately
disclosure: m a developer on a web platform.
my suspicion is correct. Looks like Blackberry Fund (aka JLA Ventures & RBC Ventures) may have a tough time breaking into Silicon Valley. The three companies named above are from;
1) Texas
2) New York
3) Israel
Canadian VC’s not having a local Silicon Valley address will find it difficult to get great deal flow. Mark my words all you need to follow is where these Blackberry companies are located.
Yes, most of ventures focusing on mobile sector beacuse there is huge market.
http://www.oxyshopping.com
w00t! TechCrunch easter egg.
the more i see it, the more i realize how good that Bold looks
Looks like the mobile opportunity is truly global and not centered in Silicon Valley.
In partnership with the Blackberry Partners Fund, we are extremely proud of their accomplishments to date and provides a showcase of the benefits a partner focused corporate social network can provide towards innovation and awareness.
David Vanheukelom
VP, Corporate and Product Strategy
IGLOO Software
http://www.igloosoftware.com
More on Mobimate/ Worldmate on VC Cafe: http://vccafe.c...aels-worldmate/
The App has been around for a while, more than 1 Million downloads on the Nokia S60 platform.
It’s kind of weird that they decided to invest in 3 companies that weren’t grand prize winners.
Poynt, which was developed by Multiplied Media (a company that I previously worked for), was one of the Grand Prize Winners. I’ve written a review of the Beta version of the application here http://www.carl...the-blackberry/
I agree with Alex. Not to take anything away from the companies funded but seems odd that these venture guys will be looking for deal flow all the way from Canada. Any way you slice it most deal flow comes from silicon valley.
Congrats to the 3 companies.
wow, I hope that blackberry will launch something really cool now …
Mobile media spends just keep going up and up, even in this economic downturn. Pretty good play by RIM to invest in a company like Buzzd. They can deliver location based ads and target advertisements have to be the most sought after marketing spend for mobile.
it seems that BlackBerry partners fund like to invest SNS app. does it really improve BB network effectiveness?