BlackBerry Partners Fund Announces Developer Challenge Grand Prize Winners

PRESS RELEASE

BlackBerry Developer Conference – Santa Clara, CA, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ – The BlackBerry Partners Fund LP, a $150 million venture capital fund formed to focus on applications and services for the BlackBerry® and other mobile platforms, announced today that Poynt, Strands Social Player and Nobex Radio Companion are the Best in Show Grand Prize Winners of the BlackBerry Partners Fund(TM) Developer Challenge.

Poynt is a free local search tool that connects users to businesses, movie theatres, and retailers, whenever and wherever users need them. Poynt includes such features as target site browsing, interactive maps, driving directions, GPS compatibility, show times, movie trailers, and ticket purchase. With Poynt’s intuitive interface, users can find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

Strands Social Player, developed by Strands Inc., is a music player that lets you discover new music, connect with people, and share your tastes with friends. It automatically shows cover art, provides artist and song recommendations from over 6 million songs featuring free previews, and fully integrates with a social network of music enthusiasts.

Nobex Radio Companion, developed by Nobex Technologies, shows you what song is playing on any of 2700 radio stations and when you hear a song you like click “Get It!” and it will send you an email with a link to buy the song, so you can keep your music collection fresh. Over a hundred stations are now playable on your BlackBerry Smartphone.

As winners, the three companies will receive a $150,000 investment from the BlackBerry Partners Fund and are entered into the BlackBerry Partners Fund “Jump Start” program. Detailed information on the Jump Start program can be found at: http://www.blackberrypartnersfund.com/jumpstart.

“The BlackBerry Partners Fund is dedicated to identifying and supporting organizations that are bringing innovative applications to the BlackBerry and other mobile platforms, and the creation of the Developer Challenge is evidence of this commitment,” said Kevin Talbot, Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. “We would like to congratulate Strands Inc., Multiplied Media and Nobex Technologies for demonstrating the outstanding technological vision and superior operational execution worthy of earning the top prize in the Developer Challenge.”

The BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge invited developers to create BlackBerry applications in five categories: Gaming, Multimedia, Personal Productivity and Lifestyle, Enterprise and Web. The grand prize winners were selected from 15 finalists. More information on the challenge and the finalists can be found at:

    www.blackberrypartnersfund.com/challenge.

    About BlackBerry Partners Fund

The BlackBerry Partners Fund is a $150 million venture capital fund formed to focus on applications and services for the BlackBerry platform and other mobile platforms including mobile commerce (payments, advertising, retailing and banking), vertical and horizontal enterprise applications, communications, social networking, location-based applications and services (navigation and mapping), media and entertainment, and lifestyle and personal productivity applications. The Fund considers all stages of development and is to be co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners. For further information visit: www.blackberrypartnersfund.com.

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