Finland Times

Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), a global venture firm on Tuesday announced to launch its third fund with a further US$250 million long term commitment from Nokia under the project for mobile ecosystem, said a press release.

The NGP also announced to expand its presence in China in addition to invest in high potential businesses within the mobile ecosystem in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

"Over the past decade, Nokia has developed an innovative venturing strategy," said Timo Ihamuotila, Nokia executive vice president and chief financial officer, adding that the ongoing commitment to NGP reinforces Nokia's support for a vibrant mobile ecosystem and determination to collaborate with industry innovators to build great mobile products.

"Nokia Growth Partners is delighted with Nokia's continuing commitment, which recognizes strong financial performance since our formation in 2005," said John Gardner, managing partner of NGP.

 "What sets NGP apart from pure financial investors are the partnerships and insights our invested companies get from their close association with Nokia. " said the managing parter, adding that in the past year, NGP has also realized several successful exits, including the IPOs of Morpho and Inside Secure and sales of Swype, Summit Microelectronics and Netmagic.

The managing partner of Nokia Growth Partners, Paul Asel, said that they are pleased to welcome David Tang and Lu Guo to the NGP team and look forward to their contributions to the ongoing investment activities in China, an important market for Nokia,". "David Tang is well known in the Chinese venture community as an advisor to leading mobile businesses such as UCWeb and Ganji. NGP has enjoyed a long relationship with Mr. Tang during his earlier tenure as vice chairman of Nokia China, the press release added.