Microsoft Corp’s $7.2bn acquisition of the phone business of Finland-based, mobile phone maker Nokia does not include Nokia’s venture capital division, Nokia Growth Partners.
Nokia Growth Partners currently has 27 active investments in mobile start-ups and raised a $250 million third fund from its sole limited partner Nokia at the beginning of 2013. Approximately three-quarters of the portfolio companies have a strategic, supporting relationship with Nokia.
Nokia, formerly a gumboot maker, has been left with its networking equipment unit Nokia Solutions and Networks, as well as a navigation business and technology patents.
Bo Ilsoe, managing director of Nokia Growth Partners, has said that Nokia Growth Partners will continue to work with the Microsoft groups, although former Nokia employees will be “more at an arm’s length than they are today.”
Ilsoe is confident that he will be raising another fund in four to five years time, but adds: “We of course have to navigate through this transition.”