Having recently taken over the leadership role at Nokia, Rajeev Suri, president and chief executive officer of the company has taken the first major policy decision by launching a $100 million Connected Car Fund.
The fund will invest in auto technology and local services companies in collaboration with HERE – a Nokia company, to grow the ecosystem around HERE?s mapping and location-based products and services.
Nokia is a major player in the automotive industry providing location intelligence for connected vehicles through HERE and aims to leverage business opportunities offered by growing adoption of telematics by automobile companies including Folkswagen, Tesla Motors, Daimler AG and BMW.
The Connected Car Fund will be the fourth fund to be managed by Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) for Nokia over the past decade. The launch of new fund brings Nokia?s commitments managed by NGP to $700 million. So far, NGP has invested in firms such as Rocket Fuel, Heptagon and UCweb.
The Connected Car Fund aims to extend NGP?s investment activities in the United States, India, China and Europe where NGP continues to invest in high potential businesses.
