Wheelings & Dealings: Nokia Growth Partners Invests in Hipmunk

Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) is on an investment spree. The company has recently invested in San Francisco-based travel company Hipmunk, which offers metasearch travel service for mobile and online. This is NGP’s 15^th investment this year.

The site and mobile apps from Hipmunk help save time and money by comparing top travel sites to show the perfect flight or hotel at the cheapest price. The company claims that it offers the most comprehensive travel search, from commercial flights, trains, and charter flights to hotels and vacation rentals through Airbnb and HomeAway.

"Multi-platform travel planning is becoming a standard mobile offering. Hipmunk is leading the way in cross-platform integration, making it a high-potential next generation travel company. We found Hipmunk after an extensive market review and believe that CEO Adam Goldstein can drive Hipmunk to take a market leadership position within multi-platform travel services", said John Gardner, managing partner at NGP.

NGP is an independent fund sponsored solely by Nokia investing in companies that are changing the face of mobility. NGP offers industry expertise, capital and an extensive network, enabling entrepreneurs to build disruptive, industry-changing companies and take them to the global market. With offices in the U.S., Europe, India and China, NGP extends the reach of companies making their products and services local everywhere.

Nokia is rebuilding itself and expanding to new fields after selling its mobile-phone unit to Microsoft. While Nokia now gets most of its revenue from wireless-network equipment, the Espoo, Finland-based company is also seeking to make its maps business a stronger competitor against rivals including Google. Recently, Nokia laid out a $100 million fund, which will be managed by Nokia Growth Partners and put a particular focus on connected car investments across a large swath of the world, from China and India to Europe and the United States. Along with that, there's a more specific focus involved: Specifically, a plan to put some extra development activity into the Nokia in-car dashboard mapping and location system, the HERE system.