Finland, May 5, 2014: Nokia’s smartphone business may have moved on to Microsoft but the company continues to work in the “smart” market.
Nokia today announced the launch of a US $100 million ‘Connected Car’ fund to be managed by Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), an independent VC supported by Nokia. The fund will identify and invest in companies whose innovations will be important for a world of connected and intelligent vehicles.
Nokia is already a player in the automotive industry providing location intelligence for connected vehicles through its Group company ‘HERE’. The NGP fund, working closely with ‘HERE’, shall seek to make investments that also support the growth of the ecosystem around HERE’s mapping and location products and services.
According to Rajeev Suri, Nokia President and Chief Executive Officer, NGP had been consistently performing well bringing in both new innovation and financial return to Nokia. “Our new USD 100 million venture fund launched today further underlines our belief that the connected car is a significant growth opportunity where NGP is poised to make great investments”, he said in a written statement.
Paul Asel, Partner at NGP, said post-development that for the last few years there had been a surge in innovation that had brought technological advances leading to safer, cleaner, increasingly connected, intelligent and more affordable vehicles. Vehicles were becoming a new platform for technology adoption very similar to phones or Tablets.
The Connected Car fund extends NGP’s global investment activities in the U.S., India, China and Europe where NGP continue to invest in high potential businesses. The new fund brings Nokia’s commitments managed by NGP to US $700 million. So far, NGP has invested in technology companies including Rocket Fuel, Heptagon and UCweb.
The Connected Car fund will be the fourth fund that NGP has managed on behalf of Nokia in the last decade.
Image Credit: NGP
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