HMD Global, the maker of Nokia-branded phones, said it is founding a new Centre of Excellence for R&D in the Finnish city of Tampere by acquiring the assets of mobile, enterprise and cybersecurity software company Valona Labs. It will undergo an immediate recruitment drive and the centre will specialise in software and security-related intellectual property and services.
In March this year, HMD Global launched data roaming service HMD Connect. The centre in Tampere will concentrate on developing this service and begin work on others, such as remote device locking, enterprise mobility management, mobile device software security, secure network communication and black box testing.
There are also ambitions to expand the scope of the centre to include imaging and audio technologies in the future. The centre will be led by Ari Heikkinen, the former head of unit at Valona Labs, who has now been appointed as senior director of security and enterprise solutions at HMD Global.
Heikkinen said Valona Labs had been working closely with HMD Global for quite some time. He said setting up the new Centre of Excellence is a case of striking while the iron is hot. Cybersecurity incidents have been on the rise during the Covid-19 pandemic, so there is no better time to increase efforts in mobile security, he added.
Tampere is renowned as a site of technological development, particularly in relation to mobile innovation. HMD Global will take advantage of the region’s expertise and explore collaboration opportunities with different companies in the area, as well as with Tampere University’s technology department. Harri Ojala, director of investments and global operations at Business Tampere, welcomed HMD Global and its new Centre of Excellence to the city.
