BlackBerry Partners Fund adds $150M for more mobile investments

The new $150 million fund gives Relay Ventures a lot more money to make bets on mobile computing. The firm is looking at funding all manner of early stage mobile start-ups and has already funded 32 mobile companies to date including Appcelerator, Xobni, Payfone and Local Response out of the previous $150 million BlackBerry Partners Fund, which was launched in 2008. Other previous bets included Buzzd, Pub Nub, Nexage and Pocketgear.

Kevin Talbot, co-managing partner of Relay Ventures, told me the fund, which continues to license the BlackBerry name from RIM, will be looking at funding not just apps, nevertheless companies that are leveraging 3G, 4G, sensors and the cloud to create mobile products that work without regard to operating systems and devices. He said the possibility in mobile is only growing with real-time, always-on Internet access available through smartphones and tablets.

I would expect to see more of these mobile-focused funds and VC firms appear. Kleiner Perkins has launched its own $200 million iFund to back applications, services and elements for iOS devices. DCM announced an A-Fund last year to help Android-focused companies. The world is increasingly going mobile and we’re after all realizing the possibility in smartphones and tablets.