Dr Tero Ojanperä to leave Nokia, Nokia to collaborate with Vision+, Ojanperä as Managing Partner

A couple of stories I noticed on my twitterfeed which would probably make better sense in one post.

1) Dr Tero Ojanperä to leave Nokia

http://press.nokia.com/2011/08/31/tero-ojanpera-to-leave-nokia/

2) Nokia to collaborate with Vision+ fund to foster application development for its ecosystem

http://www.visionplus.fi/news-5

Dr Tero Ojanperä is the Executive Vice President and a member of the Nokia Leadership Team and will leave Nokia by September. But his connections with Nokia don’t end there.  “He will take on a new role as Managing Partner of a new investment fund Vision+.”

This moves us onto the next part. Vision+. This is described as  “an independently- run investment fund, focused on financing innovative products. ” Nokia will be an anchor investor in Vision+. This is supposedly part of Nokia’s strategy to get more app and game development to the Nokia Ecosystem (similar projects include the Calling All Innovators campaign and the PolarMobile App partnership.. There’s a hungry audience out there of wiling to make 9Million+ downloads a day and more.

The fund’s focus is to take a unique approach in match-making application development projects directly with customers, resulting in new innovations coming onto the market more quickly. In addition, product developers will create and preserve their own intellectual property, helping them to grow the value of their companies, while Vision+ will share product revenues. Vision+ is to fund applications and games for various platforms especially focused on Converged Gaming, Entertainment & Education and Preventive Health Care and Wellness. As Vision+ moves forward, it will look into expanding across other industries, exploring visionary product concepts in clean water and energy.

“We’re excited to work with Vision+ and foster innovation for the mobile developer ecosystem where we believe that the next big opportunity will be local application development. The Nokia developer program provides strong support for local developers and it aims to have the most local application portfolio. Thus this initiative is a great addition to our developer activities, including those with Microsoft.  We look forward to more and more innovative applications from creative entrepreneurs in the mobile space,” says Marco Argenti, Senior Vice President, Developer Experience, Nokia

“My new role at Vision+ will give me a fantastic opportunity to leverage my strong industry relationships and versatile experience built up within Nokia and the surrounding mobile ecosystem. Vision+ will be able to provide support to developers and entrepreneurs when they plan to introduce the best visions and product concepts into global and local markets. I look forward working together with these companies targeting to monetize their great ideas,” says Tero Ojanperä, Managing Partner, Vision+.

1) Source: @Trixxy/@BenWood

2) Source: http://www.marketwatch.com

Category: Nokia