November - 2013 - issue > VC talk

Focusing On Unique Problems Gives an Edge

Upal Basu

Managing Director -NGP India Advisors

Monday, November 4, 2013

Forward

Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) is a venture fund that focuses on later stage investments in companies that are disrupting the mobile industry exhibiting high growth potential. NGP manages $600 million for venture investing and is backed by Nokia as its sole LP.

Disruptive shifts in technology are capable of creating lasting impacts and can change the way we lead our lives. We can see a disruptive shift from the traditional agency model to technology-driven programmatic buying of ad spots using artificial intelligence and algorithms. Another significant trend is the growth of location-aware advertising on mobile devices. Being early investors in these trends, we can see several innovative companies such as Vizury (India), RetailNext, Verve mobile, Adknowledge and RocketFuel - which recently had an IPO. Investment in new business models are at the intersection of these trends like Verve Mobile and RetailNext.

We can also witness traditional entertainment businesses that depend on TV, PC, Proprietary Gaming Consoles, and Set top Boxes being rapidly disrupted by cloud companies that deliver highly personalized content to subscribers across their choice of devices.
Another trend on the upward growth is embedded systems scaling beyond mobile devices to a large variety of new form factors (such as Watches, Wearable, Connected Cars, Sensors). Creating the next generation of Internet will require new hardware, software and cloud innovations.

"Location is to Mobile" what "Search is to the Web", a critical element to the success of mobility. Location is the key enabler of various new forms of collaboration, communication and commerce.