PocketGear, which has just recently acquired mobile app store Handango, has just secured a $15 Million investment from some big names like Blackberry Partners Fund and Eric Schmidt’s (CEO of Google) technology investment firm TomorrowVentures LLC.
The goal of this round of fund-raising is to grow PocketGear’s sales and marketing group, continue their mobile application development, and broaden their overall international presence. “As we power more app stores for our partners, PocketGear provides an even more powerful distribution channel for our network of developers. Trident and BlackBerry Partners Fund both have deep experience and success in mobile and Internet services and, like us, believe that an open marketplace will deliver more value for all of the key stakeholders across the mobile value chain,” says Jud Bowman, President and CEO of PocketGear, in a statement today.
PocketGear’s mobile application store contains over 144,000 apps and other content for major mobile platforms such as Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry, Palm, Android, and many Java based devices in North America and Europe. Their current network of 32,000+ devlopers, over 40 partnerships that include 4 0f the 5 top mobile handset makers in the world, and 4 of the 5 top mobile carries in the U.S, and with an app store network of Handango, Smartphone.net, PocketGear, Mobile2Day, AndroidGear, SymbianGear, and RimGear make PocketGear the largest mobile app store.