BlackBerry Partners Fund’s co-managers have merged their investment teams to focus exclusively on mobile venture capital investment opportunities under the BlackBerry Partners Fund brand around the world.
The USD150m BlackBerry Partners Fund was founded in 2008 with capital commitments from limited partners, including Research In Motion, Thomson Reuters and RBC.
The fund was previously co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners.
The fund has made 12 investments since October 2008. RBC remains a limited partner in the fund.
"While it is business as usual for all of our existing portfolio companies, the reorganisation of the BlackBerry Partners Fund manager increases efficiency and reduces duplication to better enable our continued operations and future expansion," says BlackBerry Partners Fund co-managing partner Kevin Talbot. "By unifying the investment team, we are creating an even stronger, Canadian-based, globally competitive investment manager."
Separately, Clairmont Capital, an independent firm newly created by Talbot and the former investment team of RBC Venture Partners, will manage the RBC Venture Partners portfolio on behalf of RBC. The assets being managed are from RBC’s two early stage venture capital funds totaling approximately USD250m invested in early stage companies focused on financial services technology.
