Canada-based venture capital firm Relay Ventures closed its third fund yesterday with a total of C$200m ($150m) in commitments from limited partners including mobile network operator US Cellular.
Northleaf Capital Partners acted as the lead investor, while Royal Bank of Canada, Kensington Capital Partners, Generation Capital, AEC, credit export agency Export Development Canada and pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also supplied cash.
The firm launched its first fund, BlackBerry Partners Fund, in 2008 with backing from BlackBerry, the mobile device manufacturer then known as Research in Motion.
Relay Ventures III has already invested in 10 companies to date, eight of which are Canada-based. It focuses on early-stage deals in the mobile software, services and content sectors.
John Albright, managing partner at Relay Ventures, said: “Today, [entrepreneurs] are all coming out of higher education with real strong domain focus and passion with regard to what they care about, and chasing it.
“Our firm is overwhelmed with [investment] opportunities, the funnel is huge and it is overflowing. It is allowing us to be very picky about who and what we finance.”
– A version of this article originally appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing.