Nokia has announced the launch of a $100 million Connected Car fund to be managed by Nokia Growth Partners. The fund will identify and invest in companies whose innovations will be important for a world of connected and intelligent vehicles. Nokia is already a major player in the automotive industry providing location intelligence for connected vehicles through HERE. 

Nokia may have finally offloaded its device and services division to Microsoft after its $7.2 billion deal  was completed last month, but it is starting May with an interesting announcement: it is launching a fund that will invest $100 million in connected car startups. The ‘Connected Car Fund’ fund will be managed by  Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) and “will identify and invest in companies whose innovations will be important for a world of connected and intelligent vehicles,” the Finish company says. The fund will be closely aligned with Nokia’s HERE mapping division (which it didn’t sell to Microsoft), with the aim of finding companies and technology that “support the growth of the ecosystem around HERE’s mapping and location products and services.”