Nokia Ventures Back Korea Wireless Firm

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Nokia Venture Partners has set up shop in the
blooming Korean tech market, opening an office in Seoul and investing $5
million in wireless software firm WiderThan.

The VC firm, which manages about $650 million and invests investments in
early
stage mobile technology companies around the world, said the move to open an
office in Korea was part of its commitment to the growing mobile market in
the Asia Pacific region.

“(We) began to explore the Asia Pacific region in 2001 after the company
closed its second fund, totaling $500 million and launched business
development efforts to assist existing Nokia Venture Partners portfolio
companies pursue business opportunities within markets in Japan, Greater
China, and Korea area,” the company said.

Immediately, the firm announced it would invest $5 million in WiderThan.com,
a wireless Internet software developer and services provider with
headquarters in Korea.

WiderThan, which develops software for wireless Internet content, said it
would use the $5 million injection to build out and market its VoiceXML
related products, wireless multimedia and mobile commerce applications.