Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) has announced a new $350 million fund IV, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, for investing in IoT companies in the US, Europe, India and China. The IoT fund will look for entrepreneurs and support Nokia’s goal to ‘become a leader in a world where everybody and everything is connected.’ This makes the total funds with NGP at over $1 billion, with over $500 million available for investments. The fund will invest in companies around connected enterprise, consumer solutions, connected car and digital health and those focused on big data and analytics. For Nokia, the fund will define future business opportunities for the IoT market, and work with operators, enterprises and partners using its mobile and fixed network assets to make IoT connectivity, distributed cloud and IoT platforms with apps and analytics. The press release mentioned that, ‘Nokia expects IoT to create new industries and opportunities in connected mobility, smart cities, public safety and health care and the connected home.’ Connected car fund: Readers would remember that in 2014, Nokia which then sold off its devices & services business to Microsoft, launched a $100 million connected car fund to invest in startups around the automotive ecosystem. The fund would be managed by the company’s venture arm Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) and would operate in India, United States, Europe and China. Other developments in the IoT space: – Earlier this month, HCL Technologies entered into a partnership with Microsoft to launch an incubation centre for Internet…
