HMD Globals, the Finnish company that manufactures Nokia smartphones and feature phones has been successful in raising $100 million from investors to scale up its business operations and fund its growth.
The latest funding has put HMD grab the “unicorn status” with a current market valuation of exceeding $1 billion.
The round of investment was led by Geneva-based Ginko Ventures via Alpha Ginko Ltd. with participation from DMJ Asia Investment Opportunity and Wonderful Stars which is a subsidiary of FIH Mobile Ltd.
Florian Seiche, CEO, HMD Global, said in a statement on Monday, We are thrilled to have these investors join us in our journey to script the next chapter of Nokia phones. It is our ambition to deliver great smartphones that delight our fans while staying true to our Finnish roots and the hallmarks that the Nokia brand has always been known for.
It is interesting to note that HMD Global had acquired its global licence from Nokia in May 2016 post which the company has launched 16 new Android-based mobile phones since February last year. Moreover, the company also claims to have scaled up operations in over 80 countries with phone activations across 170 countries.
HMD is aggressively planning to expand its portfolio of Nokia phones for 2018 while doubling channel reach in strategic markets. Moreover, according to IANS report, the Finnish firm is also actively working towards manufacturing its own components in India.
Post Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017, the company has introduced 16 devices and global partnerships with industry giants such as ZEISS and Google, in addition to continuing its long-term strategic partnership with FIH and Nokia.
Ajey Mehta, Vice President and Country Head-India, HMD Global said, “We are following the phased manufacturing programme. In line with this, we have started having conversations with our partner Foxconn to manufacture our own components in the country.”