The Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) funded venture capitalist company Nokia Growth Partners has declared a fresh $350 million fund for Internet of Things (IoT), sponsored fully by Nokia.
Rajeev Suri, Nokia’s CEO said that the company’s goal is to expand the IoT ecosystem, boost connectivity demand and produce returns from investments. As per Suri, the new fund increases the assets managed by Nokia Growth Partners to over $1 billion.
The fund will put money in companies with potential primarily in areas such as digital health, connected car, consumer solutions and connected enterprise. Also investments will be made in technologies related to big data analytics.
The fund is dedicated to discover the top entrepreneurs in the internet of things worldwide and help Nokia’s objective to become a front runner in a world where everything as well as everybody is connected.
Suri discussed the potential for 5G to increase the speed of network traffic as well as Nokia’s network enterprise. According to him 5G should arrive fast, as certain important activities need it. He gave examples such as autonomous driving as well as healthcare. Suri stressed that Nokia will concentrate on driving fresh opportunities through IoT in a collaborative as well as organically.
Suri noted that in the case of the Internet of Things Nokia has been acting swiftly in testing ideas. For instance they have collaborated with KT in South Korea on applying real time analytics as well as automated action to boost farming productivity. The company has worked on delivering intelligent transportation on Germany’s highways. This involved real-time danger warnings as well as other safety data facilitating vehicle to vehicle as well as miscellaneous infrastructure communication.
The fund will help Nokia in outlining business opportunities in the future as well as gaining technical expertise for the quickly expanding IoT market. Bo Ilsoe, NGP, managing partner said that the fund anticipates making roughly one investment every month. He added that it will concentrate on early stage investments. Nokia’s Suri disclosed that the organization has bought Canadian company Nakina that is focusing on identity access management software.
