Nokia phone maker raises $230m with help from former rival Google
HMD Global, the Finnish company which rescued Nokia’s ailing smartphone brand, has raised $230m (£175m) from investors including Google.
The deal sees Google, whose Android software once helped usher in the decline of Nokia's original smartphone business, take an equity stake in HMD.
HMD Global has owned the Nokia Mobile brand since 2016 and releases phones including remakes of classic Nokia devices.
After failing to take on Apple and Google's Android, Nokia’s mobile phone division was sold to Microsoft in 2013 as part of a $7.2bn deal in an effort to boost its Windows Phone efforts.
But the deal failed to ignite Microsoft’s smartphone ambitions. Within three years, it had sold the Nokia Mobile brand to HMD, a business set up by former Nokia executives.
Based in Espoo, the latest round of investment comes from Nokia, Google and chip firm Qualcomm. HMD has emerged as Europe's last major smartphone maker. It reported sales of around £2.1bn last year.
HMD sells a broad range of phones, including mid-tier devices that cost around £500 as well as budget smartphone handsets. Despite being a relatively small player in the global smartphone market, HMD claims to have sold 240 million phones since 2016.
The Finnish firm has also taken to re-imagining Nokia's older handsets, including the Nokia 3310. First released in 2000, the 3310 proved to be a cult hit for its durability and long lasting battery life.
The simple phone had a keyboard, a black and white screen and the iconic mobile game Snake. HMD relaunched the model in 2017, with the phone quickly selling out online as consumers embraced the retro phone.
The company said it planned to use the new funding to develop affordable 5G phones, which come with faster mobile data and download speeds. It is expecting to launch its first 5G device, the Nokia 8.3, later this summer.
Florian Seiche, HMD chief executive, said: “This additional investment further validates our long-term business strategy… As the only major European smartphone manufacturer, we remain true to our Finnish roots and the hallmarks that our customers trust Nokia phones to be synonymous with.”
