Jolla raises €10 Million Series B


    When Jolla first launched I think a few entrepreneurs and ourselves were skeptical if the company would progress anywhere beyond a concept. But it’s clear now that Jolla isn’t going anywhere, and has raised some significant money with a new €10 million Series B. Raising money isn’t everything, but it shows that there’s plenty of validation behind the company as their total funding now stands at €34 million.

    “Although this is a sizeable funding for a start-up already, it is still a small amount considering the size of our mobile operating system agenda,” says Antti Saarnio, Chairman of the Board of Jolla in a statement.

    While Jolla’s special sauce has always been in their OS thanks to their team’s history from Nokia’s Meego OS, the company has had a history of talking up their hardware with gimmicks like “the second half”, the removable back cover of their phones that also extended the phone’s capability. For the future the company hints that they’ll be focusing less on hardware, saying that there are plenty of companies out there fully focused on building unique devices.

    They did give some hints about the future of their OS, however. They see the money being in mobile commerce, which they claim would be hard for google to bake into Android at this point.

    “This is where we see our opportunity: to shift from application-based mobile era into m-commerce-based mobile era, and to offer the best user experience for consumers. We welcome all digital content and e-commerce players to join the Sailfish OS agenda among operators and hardware vendors,” says Saarnio in a statement.

    The next thing coming up for the company is their tablet announced this past November at Slush. The company says that they’ve raised $1.82 million on Indiegogo through preorders in a successful campaign.

    When you’re also announcing a Series B it’s a little silly to call an crowdfunding campaign a raise rather than preorders, but still it shows good demand for their tablet through the company’s fans.

    Will Jolla’s tablet take off with so many competitors fighting for Apple’s market share? Let us know in the comments.