Nokia will invest 72 million euros in smart car technology. The company reports this on its website. The money will be put into a fund that Nokia will use to invest in companies developing computing and communication technologies for cars.
The fund will be managed by Nokia Growth Partners and the investments are aimed, among other things, at expanding Nokia’s Here map service platform. Paul Asel of NGP calls the car a platform that is ripe for development. “Vehicles provide a new platform for development similar to that of smartphones and tablets,” said Asel. Nokia already has some share of the navigation market through its Navteq division. With the Here service, the company has already brought navigation to smartphones and tablets.
The investment comes two weeks after the sale of Nokia’s telephone division. The Finnish company will retain ownership of Here and Microsoft will license the map service. Nokia is not the only one involved in car technology and the ‘connected car’, Intel already invested 100 million dollars in their own fund in 2012. In addition, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Samsung, among others, are working on bringing their own software platform to cars.