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Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), the venture capital arm of Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia, is to further invest in Indian companies as valuations are hovering at reasonable levels.
With more than $600 million under management, NGP has invested in mobile and technology companies. In September, the US software giant Microsoft acquired Nokia’s mobile handset and device business in a $7.17-billion deal.
The deal, however, did not include NGP. “We are looking at stepping up the pace of our investments in India, along with that in other parts of the world.” NGP Advisors India Managing Director Upal Basu told Business Line on the sidelines of the Intel Capital Global Summit here.
The venture capital firm, which invests across companies in the US, India, China and Europe, continues to raise funds from Nokia. In India, the firm is keen to invest in local services, enterprise mobility (business software), digital advertising, embedded software and semi-conductor companies. Traditionally, NGP makes ‘Series B’ type of investments in exchange of around 10-20 per cent stake.
Series A is the first institutional financing, while Series B is a much higher finance provided to a company.
“Occasionally, we would also look at providing Series A funding, in case we get a co-investor," he added. The investments would be platform-agnostic and could be in companies developing software on Android, Microsoft, HTML-5 and other technologies.
(This correspondent is in San Diego at the invitation of Intel Capital)
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