Nokia Growth Partners Fund increased with 100 Million USD

Menlo Park, Calif., US and Espoo, Finland - Nokia Growth Partners, a global private equity and venture capital management firm backed by Nokia, today announced a significant expansion of the group's investment plans providing an additional $100million investment into a Fund of Funds program with a special focus on emerging technology markets, including India and China. The firm also announced that John Gardner and Paul Asel, two industry veterans, will lead the expansion effort.

 

Launched in 2004, Nokia Growth Partners' inaugural $100 million Venture Capital Fund invests directly into growth stage technology companies that share an alignment of business interests with Nokia.

 

Nokia Growth Partners has now created a Fund of Funds program targeting an additional $100 million of investments in top tier venture funds that offer access to emerging markets and/or exposure to innovative technologies in domain areas beyond the scope of Nokia's traditional core businesses.  

 

Building on the earlier successes of its direct investment Venture Capital Fund, Nokia Growth Partners will also devote additional resources to increase its activity in Asia, with specific emphasis on China and India. Nokia Growth Partners will be managing a combined $200 million of capital between the Venture Capital Fund and the Fund of Funds program.

 

"Over the past decade, Nokia has crafted an innovative, systematic and sustainable strategy to private equity and venture capital", says Rick Simonson, CFO of Nokia. "An important tenet at Nokia is to strive to be "best in class" in all areas of operations.  Our investment in BlueRun Ventures, a global early stage venture capital fund, and Nokia Growth Partners, a strategic global growth fund, provides Nokia with a holistic approach to gaining access to the innovation and partnering opportunities created in a broad slice of the venture capital industry spectrum, all on a disciplined, return on investment basis.  The expansion of the Nokia Growth Partners platform into fund of funds investing is the logical next step in this continuum."

 

Nokia is driving to mobilize the Internet. According to Tero Ojanperä, Nokia's Executive Vice President and CTO, much of the outside innovation Nokia is looking to find, lies in areas beyond the company's traditional core businesses.

 

"It is obvious that today's mobile handset is about photos, music, TV, video, navigation, buddy finding, even social networking. Media sharing and staying connected is what the phenomena is all about", said Ojanperä. "In order to capitalize on these trends, Nokia will need to partner with third parties and adapt and adopt with greater speed and agility than ever before.  Nokia Growth Partners plays a key role in allowing Nokia to tap into venture capital driven innovation, and this expansion is further evidence of our commitment to venture capital investing as part of our renewal initiatives." 

 

This expansion of Nokia New Growth Partners will be lead by John Gardner and Paul Asel who together have a combined 30+ years of venture and global investing experience, and will join the existing team at Nokia Growth Partners as Managing Partners. Current team of Rob Trice, Tapio Siik and Markus Salolainen, who launched Nokia Growth Partners in December 2004, are all continuing as partners at the firm.

 

John Gardner comes to Nokia Growth Partners from BlueRun Ventures where he was a partner from firm inception; he has over 15 years experience advising and working with start-up and emerging businesses, and is a long time wireless communications industry veteran.

 

Paul Asel joins Nokia Growth Partners from the International Finance Corporation, where he led the technology investment practice in India.  Paul has over 15 years of global, technology focused investment experience in the United States, India, Russia and East Asia.   

 

Nokia Growth Partners will continue to work closely with BlueRun Ventures.  The two firms operate independently but share a common investor in Nokia, a long standing working history amongst the partners, as well as complementary technology and financial investment targets.

 

Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations.

 

Nokia Growth Partners is a diversified institutional investment management firm headquartered in Menlo Park, CA.  It is fully funded by Nokia with USD200M under management.  Nokia Growth Partners invests globally directly into growth stage technology companies as a Venture Capital Fund and participates as a limited partner in select venture capital and private equity funds with its Fund of Funds program. Nokia Growth Partners is funded by Nokia to provide superior returns and investments into companies, firms and people that are changing the face of mobility, communications and the internet. For more information visit www.nokiagrowthpartners.com

 

Launched in 1998, BlueRun Ventures is a leading early stage venture capital fund.  BlueRun Ventures' proven approach is to invest globally as a single fund in best-of-breed technologies and teams with the drive and ability to build global companies.  BlueRun Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, California with offices in Helsinki, Herzelia (Israel), Mumbai, Seoul, and Shanghai.  For more information, visit www.brv.com.

 

 

Nokia

Communications

Tel. +358 7180 34900

E-mail: press.office@nokia.com

 

Nokia Growth Partners

Communications

Tel. +1 650 328 5508

E-mail: pr@nokiagrowthpartners.com

 

www.nokia.com

www.nokiagrowthpartners.com