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Q&A about the $150M Blackberry Partners Fund
http://venturebeat.com/ 2008/ 05/ 11/ qa-about-the-150m-blackberry-partners-fund/
VentureBeat earlier broke the news that RIM and other investors, including JLA ventures, have created a $150 million investment fund to back start-ups that work on the Blackberry. Here's a Q&A with Rick Segal (left), a partner at JLA Ventures, who will invest the fund. We corresponded today by email. The official announcement comes tomorrow. VentureBeat: As discussed in our original piece, you say you're device agnostic, and that unlike the iFund, it's not specifically designed to target the Blackberry. The RIM people want to see it run on the Blackberry, but it doesn't have to run exclusively on the Blackberry.
Reactions / posts that link to this post
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peHUB First Read
http://www.pehub.com/wordpress/?p=2416* RIM and others (including Thomson Reuters) have committed $150 million to The Blackberry Fund, which will invest in startups whose applications run on their ubiquitous devices. VentureBeat had it first. * Barbarians at the bank: PE firms are buying
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A New Era Coming for Blackberry
http://p10.hostingprod.com/@skypejournal.com/blog/2008/05/a_...With RIM's annual WES event starting later today we started to see announcements Monday about a new Blackberry and a new VC fund for mobile applications. Blackberry Bold is definitely a major smartphone enhancement from the current Pearl, Curve and, most notably, 88x0 lines. Reading through the new specs, the Blackberry Bold addresses several issues that have been of concern in the past: triband 3G support extends support to GPRS/EDGE/HDSPA networks "push button" WiFI setup to readily access "protected" WiFi access points significantly improved multimedia support - overall (streaming) video performance, iTunes synchronization, new media player, improved display and, while they're still working on it prior to the Blackberry Bold's summer release, a new web browser. Amongst the new specs: faster processor (@ 624 MHz, the fastest Blackberry) 128MB internal Flash memory but also 1GB on-board storage memory expandable to 16GB via MicroSD/SDHC slot 2 megapixel camera GPS with Blackberry MapsBlackberry MediaSync to transfer media from iTunes half-VGA "ultra-bright" display (480 x 320) higher capacity battery: Of particular note; it maintains the traditional QWERTY keyboard with ergonomic improvements - a key Blackberry defining feature relative to iPhone -- and is its "trackball ergonomics" their response to iPhone's touch screen? With its newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-bright display, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in "Page View" or "Column View" or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP – real-time streaming protocol). While the official press release talks about it as a "business" smartphone, Crackberry.com reports from the WES preview day: Target Market? There's been a lot of talk about the target market for the 9000/BlackBerry Bold. The basic confusion to date is that it looks a bit "enterprisey", but has a camera built-in which historically screams consumer device. What it comes down to is that RIM didn't have an enterprise/consumer target in mind with the BlackBerry Bold. The real goal here was to build a high-end device that was the ultimate BlackBerry to date... the BlackBerry on Juice (err..Steroids)... putting WiFi/GPS/3G into one unit with a Speeeedy Processor and some More Memory. So there's no target market per se, but there is an Appeal...and the BlackBerry Bold is going to Appeal to BOTH Enterprise and Consumers. It'll appeal to the Business Executive and it will appeal to us Gadgetholics who just HAVE to have the best device on the market. In addition it appears that iPhone is not the only smartphone getting VC funding support for applications. Yesterday RBC Financial, Thomson Reuters and RIM announced the Blackberry Partners Fund - $150 million "to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms". Toronto's JLA Ventures, who have been involved in startups for over ten years, is a co-manager of the fund along with RBC Financial. Long time personal acquaintance Rick Segal of JLA talks about the fund and JLA's role; also Rick is interviewed by VentureBeat. Rick emphasizes that mobile applications only make business sense if they run on multiple mobile platforms, including Blackberry, and that only JLA and RBC Financial will make the funding decisions with no role for RIM. Looking forward to using iSkoot and IM+ for Skype on the Blackberry Bold. While the Blackberry Bold represents advances in device resource issues, there are still thecarrier issues of network capacity, mobile VoIP call quality and unlimited data plan availability to be addressed before we see a reliable mobile VoIP client running on a smartphone. Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Partners Fund, Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, RBC Financial, iSkoot, IM+ for Skype Powered by Qumana
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A New Era Coming for Blackberry
http://skypejournal.com/blog/2008/05/a_new_era_coming_for_bl...With RIM's annual WES event starting later today we started to see announcements Monday about a new Blackberry and a new VC fund for mobile applications. Blackberry Bold is definitely a major smartphone enhancement from the current Pearl, Curve and, most notably, 88x0 lines. Reading through the new specs, the Blackberry Bold addresses several issues that have been of concern in the past: triband 3G support extends support to GPRS/EDGE/HDSPA networks "push button" WiFI setup to readily access "protected" WiFi access points significantly improved multimedia support - overall (streaming) video performance, iTunes synchronization, new media player, improved display and, while they're still working on it prior to the Blackberry Bold's summer release, a new web browser. Amongst the new specs: faster processor (@ 624 MHz, the fastest Blackberry) 128MB internal Flash memory but also 1GB on-board storage memory expandable to 16GB via MicroSD/SDHC slot 2 megapixel camera GPS with Blackberry MapsBlackberry MediaSync to transfer media from iTunes half-VGA "ultra-bright" display (480 x 320) higher capacity battery: Of particular note; it maintains the traditional QWERTY keyboard with ergonomic improvements - a key Blackberry defining feature relative to iPhone -- and is its "trackball ergonomics" their response to iPhone's touch screen? With its newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-bright display, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in "Page View" or "Column View" or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP – real-time streaming protocol). While the official press release talks about it as a "business" smartphone, Crackberry.com reports from the WES preview day: Target Market? There's been a lot of talk about the target market for the 9000/BlackBerry Bold. The basic confusion to date is that it looks a bit "enterprisey", but has a camera built-in which historically screams consumer device. What it comes down to is that RIM didn't have an enterprise/consumer target in mind with the BlackBerry Bold. The real goal here was to build a high-end device that was the ultimate BlackBerry to date... the BlackBerry on Juice (err..Steroids)... putting WiFi/GPS/3G into one unit with a Speeeedy Processor and some More Memory. So there's no target market per se, but there is an Appeal...and the BlackBerry Bold is going to Appeal to BOTH Enterprise and Consumers. It'll appeal to the Business Executive and it will appeal to us Gadgetholics who just HAVE to have the best device on the market. In addition it appears that iPhone is not the only smartphone getting VC funding support for applications. Yesterday RBC Financial, Thomson Reuters and RIM announced the Blackberry Partners Fund - $150 million "to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms". Toronto's JLA Ventures, who have been involved in startups for over ten years, is a co-manager of the fund along with RBC Financial. Long time personal acquaintance Rick Segal of JLA talks about the fund and JLA's role; also Rick is interviewed by VentureBeat. Rick emphasizes that mobile applications only make business sense if they run on multiple mobile platforms, including Blackberry, and that only JLA and RBC Financial will make the funding decisions with no role for RIM. Looking forward to using iSkoot and IM+ for Skype on the Blackberry Bold. While the Blackberry Bold represents advances in device resource issues, there are still thecarrier issues of network capacity, mobile VoIP call quality and unlimited data plan availability to be addressed before we see a reliable mobile VoIP client running on a smartphone. Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Partners Fund, Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, RBC Financial, iSkoot, IM+ for Skype Powered by Qumana
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A New Era Coming for Blackberry
http://skypejournal.com/blog/2008/05/a_new_era_coming_for_bl...With RIM's annual WES event starting later today we started to see announcements Monday about a new Blackberry and a new VC fund for mobile applications. Blackberry Bold is definitely a major smartphone enhancement from the current Pearl, Curve and, most notably, 88x0 lines. Reading through the new specs, the Blackberry Bold addresses several issues that have been of concern in the past: triband 3G support extends support to GPRS/EDGE/HDSPA networks "push button" WiFI setup to readily access "protected" WiFi access points significantly improved multimedia support - overall (streaming) video performance, iTunes synchronization, new media player, improved display and, while they're still working on it prior to the Blackberry Bold's summer release, a new web browser. Amongst the new specs: faster processor (@ 624 MHz, the fastest Blackberry) 128MB internal Flash memory but also 1GB on-board storage memory expandable to 16GB via MicroSD/SDHC slot 2 megapixel camera GPS with Blackberry MapsBlackberry MediaSync to transfer media from iTunes half-VGA "ultra-bright" display (480 x 320) higher capacity battery: Of particular note; it maintains the traditional QWERTY keyboard with ergonomic improvements - a key Blackberry defining feature relative to iPhone -- and is its "trackball ergonomics" their response to iPhone's touch screen? With its newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-bright display, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in "Page View" or "Column View" or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP – real-time streaming protocol). While the official press release talks about it as a "business" smartphone, Crackberry.com reports from the WES preview day: Target Market? There's been a lot of talk about the target market for the 9000/BlackBerry Bold. The basic confusion to date is that it looks a bit "enterprisey", but has a camera built-in which historically screams consumer device. What it comes down to is that RIM didn't have an enterprise/consumer target in mind with the BlackBerry Bold. The real goal here was to build a high-end device that was the ultimate BlackBerry to date... the BlackBerry on Juice (err..Steroids)... putting WiFi/GPS/3G into one unit with a Speeeedy Processor and some More Memory. So there's no target market per se, but there is an Appeal...and the BlackBerry Bold is going to Appeal to BOTH Enterprise and Consumers. It'll appeal to the Business Executive and it will appeal to us Gadgetholics who just HAVE to have the best device on the market. In addition it appears that iPhone is not the only smartphone getting VC funding support for applications. Yesterday RBC Financial, Thomson Reuters and RIM announced the Blackberry Partners Fund - $150 million "to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms". Toronto's JLA Ventures, who have been involved in startups for over ten years, is a co-manager of the fund along with RBC Financial. Long time personal acquaintance Rick Segal of JLA talks about the fund and JLA's role; also Rick is interviewed by VentureBeat. Rick emphasizes that mobile applications only make business sense if they run on multiple mobile platforms, including Blackberry, and that only JLA and RBC Financial will make the funding decisions with no role for RIM. Looking forward to using iSkoot and IM+ for Skype on the Blackberry Bold. While the Blackberry Bold represents advances in device resource issues, there are still thecarrier issues of network capacity, mobile VoIP call quality and unlimited data plan availability to be addressed before we see a reliable mobile VoIP client running on a smartphone. Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Partners Fund, Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, RBC Financial, iSkoot, IM+ for Skype Powered by Qumana
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MapleLeaf 2.0 Venture Capital News: JLA Backed Blackberry Fund launches Monday
http://www.mapleleaftwo.com/mapleleaf-20-venture-capital-new...One of Rick Segal’s favourite examples about new business ideas is a Blackberry app that would know when you’re in a meeting and silence the alerts and such. No wonder then that he’d be involved in a startup fund for new Blackberry software: VentureBeat decided to jump the gun this weekend and post some news that has been floating around lately about a new Blackberry fund. They deleted the post from their blog, but it was still available in Google Reader and in other places and TechCrunch got to it late on Saturday. The new fund is being managed by RBC Ventures, who just last week closed an investment in Toronto-Based Blackberry application Viigo, and JLA Ventures. RIM, maker of the Blackberry, is a limited partner in this fund, but is not involved in the day-to-day investment decisions. The rumor mill has been churning away on this one for months here in Toronto. Originally the numbers we were hearing were $100 million, but as the weeks went by, people started to hint that things had heated up and there were partners involved up to $150 million. That number, $150M, turned out to be true. StartupNorth » Blog Archive » New $150 million Blackberry Fund, based in Canada VentureBeat earlier broke the news that RIM and other investors, including JLA ventures, have created a $150 million investment fund to back start-ups that work on the Blackberry. Here’s a Q&A with Rick Segal (left), a partner at JLA Ventures, who will invest the fund. We corresponded today by email. The official announcement comes tomorrow. Q&A about the $150M Blackberry Partners Fund » VentureBeat Your can read the press release about this and the article on Techcrunch–The iFund Has Competition: $150 Million Blackberry Fund To Be Announced Soon. Given the new Blackberry that was just announced, I see a ton of new Berry apps coming out to take advantage of the new screen and more powerful connectivity. Just hope they get to Canada soon. Tags: Blackberry, blackberry fund, JLA Ventures, Rick Segal Share This
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The iFund Has Competition: $150 Million Blackberry Fund To Be Announced Soon
http://www.dougstech.com/794/the-ifund-has-competition-150-m...The iFund Has Competition: $150 Million Blackberry Fund To Be Announced Soon 12 May, 2008 No Comment The platform wars are going mobile. Whether it’s the iPhone, Blackberry, Android or Windows Mobile, the mobile platform that will win in the end will be the one with the best and broadest collection of applications. To give developers a little extra financial motivation, funds are being set up to invest in them. Google announced a $10 million Android challenge back in November, and Kleiner Perkins announced its $100 million iFund for iPhone-only startups in March. Now, it looks like Research in Motion is about to announce its own $150 million Blackberry Partners Fund (site not up yet) to spur applications and services for its mobile device. At least, that is what VentureBeat reports in an item that appeared in its feed, but has since been pulled from the site (see headline here. Update: the first link above is now live). According to that post (excerpt): Research In Motion, the RBC and Thomson Reuters have invested in an $150 million venture investment fund, called the BlackBerry Partners Fund, to support developers of applications running primarily on the Blackberry. The announcement will be made in Orlando at a convention on Monday. The venture firm backing the fund is Canada’s JLA Ventures, a Montreal and Toronto firm active in mobile. That firm will co-manage the investing process, together with the investment group of Canada’s largest bank, RBC Venture Partners. RIM, RBC and Thomson are anchor investors in the fund. Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, Research In Motion, is on the advisory board of JLA Ventures. The fund will focus on Blackberry apps, but will also be free to to invest in startups that develop for other mobile platforms as well. That’s smart because no startup should restrict itself to just one device. But doesn’t it seem like everyone thinks they need to dangle money in front of startups to attract them to their platform these days? (See also the fbFund for Facebook startups and and the MySpace incubator spinoff Slingshot Labs). What ever happened to simply building the best damn platform in the world and letting the app developers come to you because that’s where all the users are? Update 2: VentureBeat also has a Q&A with one of teh venture partners here. DougsTech: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Content retrieved from techcrunch.com
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