Palm’s attempt to become a significant player in the smartphone market again received a boost Monday as private equity firm Elevation Partners agreed to make a $100 million equity investment in the company.

This investment is in addition to the $325 million the equity firm invested in Palm in October 2007 for strategic recapitalization, and it comes a few weeks before the smartphone and PDA maker is set to unveil its Nova operating system at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.