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Maple Leaf 2.0 - Technology and Web 2.0 News in Canada

MapleLeaf 2.0 Venture Capital News: JLA Backed Blackberry Fund launches Monday

by Tris Hussey on May 12th, 2008

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.

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4 opinions for MapleLeaf 2.0 Venture Capital News: JLA Backed Blackberry Fund launches Monday

  • Jon Husband
    May 13, 2008 at 9:59 am

    There MUST be something I’m missing here.

    Would not turning the Blackberry off for the duration of the meeting accomplish the same thing as an app that ’silences’ it during the meeting ? The alerts will stlll be there when it’s turned back on, no ?

  • Cellphone9 Links: New iPhone Colors, New BlackBerrys, The Apple vs The Berry, and more!
    May 13, 2008 at 10:28 am

    […] while the iron is hot. Rick Segal is involved in a startup for a BlackBerry software company. With the new Berrys announced and out, we’re looking at the Berry versus the Apple. It seems […]

  • Yule Heibel
    May 13, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    Funny, there was just an article in MIT Technology Review about a computer science class at MIT whose semester assignment was designing software applications for an open cell phone (based on Google’s Android), MIT students show power of open cell phone systems:

    Massachusetts Industry of Technology professor Hal Abelson put that question to about 20 computer science students this semester when he gave them one assignment: Design a software program for cell phones that use Google Inc.’s upcoming Android mobile operating system.

    In the process, they revealed the power of an open system like Android to shake up the mobile phone industry, where wireless companies are being pressured to loosen the control they have maintained over what devices do. If the brainstorms of these MIT students are an indication, phones will soon challenge the Internet as a source of innovation.

    While most of the students designed applications related to location (locative media, mobile users), one team came up with exactly what you described for the Blackberry:

    Then there was Locale, which lets users configure their phones to automatically adjust their settings when the devices detect themselves in certain zones. So you might set your phone to automatically go into vibrate mode in the office and silent mode at the movie theater, and ring everywhere else.

    Read the article here.

  • Jon Husband
    May 13, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    Thanks Yule .. that helps me understand better. Small and useful conveniences rule the day.

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