Ex-Nokia smartphone start-up Jolla has raised $US258 million in funding and might be gearing up to announce a smartphone as soon as next month, according to reports.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, republished by Daily Mobile, Jolla has successfully raised €200 million ($US258 million) from a variety of telecommunications-industry players, following the initial funding the company received through Nokia’s Bridge project.
The reports reveal that the smartphone maker has created a new version of MeeGo, codenamed “Sailfish”, which is anticipated to be used on a Jolla smartphone to be announced next month.
Jolla was formed by a number of former engineers and executives from Nokia’s MeeGo N9 division who wanted to continue development on the next-generation MeeGo smartphone platform, which the Finnish phone giant abandoned in favour of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.
Nokia’s decision to abandon MeeGo in favour of Windows Phone for its Lumia smartphones has been controversial, with former executive Tomi Ahonen attacking current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop over the decision.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
