Get ready for even more Nokia phones! HMD secures another $100 million to continue its aggressive smartphone push in 2018

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Nokia was still referred to as the phone champion of the 1990s which fell out of favour as smartphones took off. And that was true right up until 2016, when Microsoft sold the brand to HMD Global. Since then, the brand has soared.

Now, just two years later, the Finnish firm is continuing to fly off the success of its Nokia resurgence as it announces it has just secured $100 million (£741,000) in funding from a variety of investors. HMD Global is now worth over $1 billion, giving it unicorn status.

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The company announced that in 2018, HMD Global will “aggressively expand its portfolio of Nokia smartphones,” helped by this latest round of funding. The expanded range of smartphones will join Nokia’s already sprawling portfolio of impressive budget smartphones which include the Nokia 6, the Nokia 8, the Nokia 7 Plus and of course, the retro devices from the past, the Nokia 3310 and the classic banana phone.

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Since MWC 2017, HMD Global has introduced a whopping sixteen devices, with Nokia becoming the lead partner for Google’s Android One programme.

“We are thrilled to have these investors join us in our journey to script the next chapter of Nokia phones. It is our ambition to deliver greater smartphones that delight our fans while staying true to our Finnish roots and the hallmarks that the Nokia brand has always been known for,” HMD Global CEO Florian Seiche said. “We aim to be among the top smartphone players globally”.

Since HMD took over the Nokia brand in 2016, Nokia has been going from strength to strength. At the end of 2017, HMD Global posted a total revenue of $2.1 billion (£1.4 billion), and that was just in its first year. Back in February, industry analysis firm Counterpoint announced in a report that HMD Global had sold a massive 4.4 million handsets at the end of 2017, giving Nokia the third biggest market share in the UK. 

As the company gears up to aggressively release a whole host of Nokia smartphones in 2018, we expect we’ll be hearing more and more of Nokia’s success.