Dashwire has raised $515,000 in a convertible bridge financing round, money that the Seattle upstart will use for undisclosed partner deals scheduled for this fall. Dashwire, which provides a mobile phone backup service that allows users to sync contacts, photos, music, text messages and other mobile content with an online Web service, raised $1.1 million from Trilogy Equity Partners and others last fall.

Led by former Microsoft product manager Ford Davidson, the four-year-old company already has some key partnerships sealed. Last fall, Dashwire entered into an agreement with Best Buy to power its newly-launched mobile phone backup service m:IQ. Davidson said that deal is progressing, with the company last month rolling out the service for Android devices. (It's also available on Windows Mobile, Symbian and Blackberry devices).

Dashwire also is adding some horsepower to the executive ranks. It recently hired Jeff Heinen, former vice president of product development at Amdocs, as vice president of engineering.

"We’re about to celebrate our fourth birthday, and continue to be fired up about Dashwire, and the opportunities we have to create unique value for mobile device users around the world," said Davidson.

Microsoft too sees opportunity in helping consumers synchronize contacts, photos and other content between the PC environment and the mobile phone environment. Earlier this month, the company announced a new Windows Phone Live "companion site" that will allow people to see photos, calendars, contacts and other information.

"The site will offer 25GB of SkyDrive and host the Find My Phone service, which allows people to find and manage a missing phone with map, ring, lock and erase capabilities right from your PC – and all for free," Microsoft wrote in a blog post.

m:IQ also is free, providing 1 GB of storage. Davidson said they are still in the pilot phase of the service with more to come this fall.

As mobile operating system makers like Microsoft build back-up technologies into their offerings, it could create both challenges and opportunities for an upstart like Dashwire. (In fact, CNET last year wrote that Microsoft should have just partnered with Dashwire for mobile backup rather than build it on its own, saying the software giant pretty much just reinvented the wheel).

We asked Davidson about the new offerings from Microsoft, and he said that Dashwire is most similar to the KIN Studio concept which was widely regarded as one of the better aspects of the failed device. Here's more:

(The) WSJ review said it wished every phone had its own online studio. It looks like they are working to make Windows Phone 7 have a KIN Studio of its own. Dashwire has a cross phone platform offering, and is licensable, meaning a mobile operator or device maker can brand it, customize it, and make it available across its portfolio of phones and in some cases, upcoming tablets.

In addition to the Best Buy m:IQ service, Dashwire also release a mobile sync service called Awesome Drop for the Android marketplace. The company employs 19 people, including contractors. Its directors are Serena Glover, Geoff Entress, Mikal Thomsen and Ying Zeng, according to a SEC filing.