Nokia Invests $100m in Car Connectivity

Technology is also leaving its effect in the automobile market. And seeing the rapidly growing smart automobile market, Nokia, a Finnish telecom giant declared that it started a $100 million fund in order to establish itself in the automobile market by investing on the car connecting companies all over the world.

The car connective fund will be managed by the company’s venture capital arm, Nokia Growth Partners and will be cooperated with Nokia’s location unit HERE.

Nokia said that “it will search for the company and invest this fund to the company’s whose innovation will play a vital role for a world of connected and smart vehicles”.  whereas the security of people is concerned, it becomes vital for the connected vehicles to be provided with the location intelligence which is provided through HERE, taking this into consideration and also to rise up in the market after selling its mobile unit to Microsoft, Nokia decided to tie up with automobile industries and started collecting funds to invest for it. Besides, it will also make efforts to invest funds to support the growth of the ecosystem around HERE’S mapping and location products and services.

Nokia made this initiation with a belief that the connected car is an important opportunity for significant growth of the world in this technical and commutative era. This investment will also bring a great support to the company’s digital map business. We can also say it as a rebuilding step for Nokia and expanding to new fields after handing over its mobile units to Microsoft. And also the main reason for engaging with the car connecting company’s is that the vehicles are the most adopted new platform for technology in order to develop safer, cleaner, innovatively connected and affordable vehicles. As mobile handset became a Smartphone by developing all apps and services around it, auto-mobiles can also be used as a platform for the development of technology similar to that of mobile phones.

Nokia bought a Chicago based map provider Navteq for $8.1 billion in 2008 and a 3-D map technology maker Earthmine in 2012 in order to built its location technology business. Nokia’s newly appointed president and CEO, Rajeev Suri said: “we find many automobile companies which offers automobiles as a platform for all the possible technology in order to drive the future of the auto ecosystem, services and personal mobility and we find ourselves excited and fortuned to extend our support by collaborating with HERE through the connected car fund to invest in such innovative company’s”.

So far NGP is concerned, it is an independent venture fund that elaborates it support to the technology companies that have succeeded in making an impact in their respective field. So far NGP has supported three companies, Rocket Fuel, Heptagon and UCweb.

And now it is extending its fourth service as connected Car Fund on behalf of Nokia.

The new fund brings Nokia’s commitments managed by NGP to $700 million. Hope this comes as turning point for Nokia as well as for a world of intelligent and connected vehicles and all round development in the auto ecosystem.