Telecom Lead Asia: Nokia Growth Partners announced $250 million fund, its third fund that will be invested within the mobile ecosystem in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
NGP has also appointed David Tang as managing director and Lu Guo as principal in China.
“Over the past decade, Nokia has developed an innovative venturing strategy,” said Timo Ihamuotila, Nokia executive vice president & chief financial officer. “Our ongoing commitment to Nokia Growth Partners reinforces Nokia’s support for a vibrant mobile ecosystem and our 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 Nokia Growth Partners.
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.
“We are pleased to welcome David Tang and Lu Guo to the NGP team and look forward to their contributions to our ongoing investment activities in China, an important market for Nokia,” said Paul Asel, managing partner of Nokia Growth Partners.
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.
David Tang joins Nokia Growth Partners from AMD where he was corporate senior vice president and president of AMD China.
Lu Guo joins from Keytone Ventures where he was vice president responsible for mobile and Internet investments.
