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Nokia maker HMD snags $100M funding to bring you more phones

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Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
Katie Collins
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More money means more Nokia phones.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

HMD Global, the Finnish startup that makes Nokia phones , just scored itself $100 million in funding, which it will use to "aggressively expand" its product lineup, it said on Monday.

HMD, which licenses the Nokia brand to make phones bearing its name and logo, was founded in December 2016 and burst onto the scene at Mobile World Congress 2017, where it launched a range of models, including a reboot of the classic Nokia 3310. The company has brought out 16 phones in total, and its hallmark is to provide what it describes as a "pure, secure and up-to-date" Android experience.

Thanks to this latest round of funding, the company is now valued at over $1 billion, giving it unicorn status. For consumers, this should mean more Nokia phones arriving on the market in the coming year.

"It is our ambition to deliver great smartphones that delight our fans while staying true to our Finnish roots and the hallmarks that the Nokia brand has always been known for," said HMD CEO and President Florian Seiche. "We aim to be among the top smartphone players globally and our success to date gives us the confidence to further continue on a growth path in 2018 and beyond."

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