Nokia Venture Partners today launched a new $500 million fund to invest in
start up companies in the mobile Internet.
Unlike Nokia's first fund, this second fund includes third party investors:
Goldman Sachs, BMC Software, and CDBWebTech and others. Launched in 1998, Nokia
Venture Partners is the leading global mobile internet fund. The fund brings a
unique added value to its investments through Nokia's and other investor's
combined resources, expertise and contacts.
Commenting on the global focus of the fund and Nokia's position at the
forefront of the mobile Internet, Pekka Ala-Pietila, President of Nokia said the
company is looking forward to sharing their insight and vision of the future
with entrepreneurs around the world. ``This new fund is a clear signal that
Nokia is very commited to expanding our venture capital activities, given the
excellent return on investment so far and the exposure we have had to new,
innovative technologies and developments in the Internet economy.''
The new fund will continue to invest in leading edge wireless technology
companies targeting high growth market opportunities. Currently, the new fund
and the old fund have together backed over 25 portfolio companies from the US,
the UK, Germany and Finland. Nokia Venture Partners has invested in companies
such as Evoice, Covigo, Categoric, Digital Transit and fusionOne. The fund will
also have an increased focus on Israel and the Asia Pacific region given the
tremendous potential these areas have in the mobile Internet sector.
``As a global player in the investment and banking world, we are excited to
work with Nokia as the global player in the mobile Internet,'' said Gene Sykes,
Co-head of Technology Investing at Goldman Sachs. ``With the explosive growth of
users accessing the Internet via mobile devices, we feel that the mobile
Internet has huge potential.''
``As the leader in e-business systems management, we see a tremendous market
opportunity in the emergence of mobile data,'' said Kirill Tatarinov, senior
vice president, CTO and general manager of PATROL Business Unit, BMC Software.
``Partnering with Nokia in the Nokia Venture Partners will allow us to combine
our expertise in the end-to-end service level management with Nokia's strength
in the mobile Internet.''
According to CDBWebTech CEO, Carlo Pirzio Biroli, ``Nokia Venture Partners
represents a great fit with our portfolio of premier venture capital funds and
an excellent partner for co-investing in the most promising wireless
applications and technologies which wireless carriers are desperately seeking
these days''.
The fund will be renamed Nokia Venture Partners and is headed by John Malloy.
Nokia Venture Partners is based in Menlo Park, California and also has offices
in Washington, London and Helsinki.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on December 4, 2000