BlackBerry Partners Fund, a $150m venture capital fund backed by three Canada-listed companies, has made its eighth investment in the two years since its launch by leading a $10m round for Aepona.
The Belfast, Ireland-based provider of software that enables network-as-a-service for mobile operators, also received funding in its series C round from return backers Innovacom, France Telecom’s in-house venture division, and VCs Amadeus Capital Partners, Polaris Ventures, Nordic Venture Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures.
Al Snyder, chief executive of Aepona, said: "The [BlackBerry] fund shares our vision for the future of the mobile industry – one in which mobile operators can adopt a two-sided business model, delivering differentiated, network-enabled applications through their retail channels as well as directly monetising their network and billing assets to open up new wholesale revenue opportunities from the mobile cloud."
Marc Faucher, a partner at BlackBerry Partners Fund, led the international deal, which follows its investment in Israel-based WorldMate soon after the fund’s launch in May 2008. Toronto-listed Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry phones, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and media company Thomson Reuters backed the fund, which is co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners.