Nokia Bets Big on IoT, 5G, and Security

Nokia announced Feb. 21 at the Mobile World Congress that their venture capital firm Nokia Growth Partners has launched a $350 million IoT investment fund dedicated to finding promising IoT companies and technologies to invest in.

“The fund will invest in promising companies primarily around Connected Enterprise, Consumer Solutions, Connected Car and Digital Health, as well as enabling technologies with a focus on capabilities in big data and analytics,” NGP said in a blog post on their website.

The company also announced a 5G-ready radio access product. The 5G-ready AirScale radio will replace their popular Flexi base station. In a statement on their website, Nokia said operators will be able to use Nokia AirScale Radio Access for what they say will be massive IoT demand, virtual reality, factories of the future, and other scenarios that demand extreme performance.

The Airscale can run all radio technologies simultaneously in a single base station, use any architecture, offers unlimited scalability, and uses 60 percent less energy. It’s also appropriate for extreme environments and takes up little space, making it easy to hide for better security.

Nokia also announced at Mobile World Congress that it will be acquiring Canadian security firm Nakina, which specializes in security and orchestration software for virtual and hybrid networks. In a statement on their website, Nokia said it plans to use the acquisition to increase security for its developing 5G network along with mitigating threats in the IoT and Big Data arenas. IoT security has made headlines recently, but for all the wrong reasons. The company plans to complete the acquisition of Nakina the end of Q1 this year.

Related: IoT Interoperability: An Internet of Broken Things

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