Nokia commits $400m venture fund to NGP Capital

Nokia has announced its commitment to NGP Capital’s Fund V, a new $400m venture fund that will focus on promising, growth stage companies.

The fund’s emphasis on companies developing emerging 5G use cases for industrial and business transformation aligns closely with Nokia’s technology leadership vision and its efforts to maximize the value shift towards cloud.

Aiming to establish new partnership opportunities, the fund will invest in private companies that generate attractive financial returns and are strategically relevant to Nokia. Target investments will be evaluated on product market fit, unit economics and technology leadership. In addition, companies will be assessed on key ESG metrics, to support progress from an environmental, social and governance perspective.

Fund V will create value for Nokia by tapping into strategic domains and generating financial investment gains, following the venture model NGP Capital has been running for Nokia since 2005.

Nishant Batra, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, said: “A commitment to innovation is an integral part of Nokia’s strategy. Sustainable technology leadership requires us to anticipate, shape, and invest in the next technology windows. Our relationship with NGP provides a powerful avenue to explore external opportunities that support the execution of Nokia’s vision of the 5G era and beyond.”

The fund is part of Nokia’s broader innovation initiatives, providing insight and expanding into new, complementary markets and ecosystems to its core business. This activity works in tandem with the company’s internal disruptive research and incubation initiatives, including Nokia Bell Labs.

NGP Capital is a partner owned, independent venture firm with Nokia as its sole investor. This is the fifth fund the firm manages for Nokia and brings total committed, but uninvested capital, to more than $550 million and total commitments since inception to more than $1.6 billion. Per industry standard practice, the capital will be called throughout the 10-year lifecycle of the fund.