HMD Global, which calls itself “Nokia Mobile” and decorates itself as “the home of Nokia phones” has announced that it raised $230 Million in fresh investment. The leading names in this funding round include the likes of Google, Qualcomm, and Nokia Technologies. HMD Global calls these investors as “strategic partners” and excluded their names from the PR published via their website. The names were disclosed to some of the media houses, however not the ratio of individual investments.
HMD Global’s spokesperson confirmed to VentureBeat that the investment pushes the combined value of the company beyond $1 Billion. During its last earnings report, FIH Mobile (a leading investor in HMD Global) marked its investment of 64.5 Million as 10.10% of HMD Global’s total issued shares as on 31st July 2020.
Where will HMD use the investments?
HMD Global aims to use the investments to further strengthen the following areas of its business of selling Nokia phones & providing other services.
- To make 5G smartphones accessible to the consumers globally: The Nokia 8.3 5G and the upcoming Nokia 7.3 5G (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 CPU) will help HMD Global in bringing 5G enabled devices to more consumers in the world. HMD Global also aims to keep a special focus on partnerships with carriers in the US.
- Digital-first offerings: HMD Global believes that digitization will remain in focus in the post-COVID world. So, HMD Global might be aiming to build better and more secure digital experiences for the consumers. They can also invest in leveraging the online-sales model to bring their devices to a consumers in far-off areas.
- Deeper focus on key markets: HMD Global will utilize the funds to expand its presence in growth markets including India, Brazil & Africa. HMD Global has a huge opportunity in markets such as India where the Anti-China sentiment is on a rise due to the ongoing border tensions.
- Services & software: The last focus area for HMD Global are its services related to mobiles. HMD earlier launched HMD Connect and they later acquired Valona Labs to strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities. So, there will be more services and software products from HMD Global going forward.
The size of the investment is a significant, making it 3rd largest growth financing in Europe so far in 2020. Let’s hope that HMD Global will make a great use of the fresh capital to bring the Nokia phones to its glorious days.
Source: HMD Global, VentureBeat
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