WorldMate Raises a Round of funding from the BlackBerry Partners Fund and Motorola Ventures

Last week, we announced our recent round of funding, led by the BlackBerry Partners Fund. Raising money in this day and age is of course a challenge, and we're glad (and relieved) that we have completed this round. But it was as important to us to raise it from the right people. In fact a few months ago we rejected a bird in the hand (from a notable VC) for this bird on the tree, at significant risk. The reason we did this was simple. The BlackBerry Partners Fund is a fund with a real vision for the mobile internet, led by people who totally "get it". That to us has significant value. On top of that, RIM (RIMM) is a limited partner in the fund and has an open dialog with them. If you follow this blog you probably know what we think of the BlackBerry platform and how our vision is intertwined with theirs. So getting up-close-and-personal with them is something we value highly.

There are a few more companies like that in the mobile arena - Nokia, with whom we have a good relationship, Samsung, who seem to be taking their #2 position in the mobile device market seriously and are now building an eco-system, not just devices, and of course Apple. We are hoping to deepen the relationship with them too in the near future.