Jolla develops Sailfish OS, an open mobile operating system, and has pursued related device and licensing projects such as the crowdfunded Jolla Tablet. The company intends to use new funding to continue development of Sailfish OS, proceed with closing the Jolla Tablet project, and extend its licensing partnerships. Jolla experienced financing challenges the prior autumn, subsequently entered an agreement with its main creditors and canceled its debt restructuring application in Finland. Following the financing, Jolla will be able to fulfill a small number of tablet shipments to its crowdfunding backers and has decided to refund remaining Indiegogo contributions in two rounds. The company is preparing a new special community program that it says will be announced soon. Jolla is led by Antti Saarnio, Chairman. Jolla develops the Sailfish OS and builds smartphones and tablets as reference hardware to demonstrate the software. Its Jolla Tablet won 'best tablet' at Mobile World Congress and is being funded via an Indiegogo campaign that has raised almost $2.4 million. The company is about 130 people and plans to license Sailfish OS for free as a platform while pursuing revenue-sharing partnerships on software services. Jolla is actively seeking partners on both the apps side and hardware manufacturing (ODMs and OEMs) and hopes to see a non-Jolla device running Sailfish before the end of the year. The Indiegogo cash infusion is intended to buy time to refine the business model and sign partners. Jolla positions Sailfish as a lightweight, gesture-based OS with technical flexibility to scale across form factors and verticals such as cars and healthcare. Jolla develops Sailfish OS, an open-source mobile operating system that is compatible with Android apps but does not have access to Google’s Play store. The company says roughly 90% of its efforts go to software development and it aims to license the OS to device partners, while also producing its own hardware and branded accessories. Jolla has run product partnerships (including with Rovio and Makia) to deliver content via its ‘Other Half’ accessories. It recently crowdfunded a Sailfish tablet on Indiegogo, raising more than $1.8M from over 13,000 backers and unlocking stretch goals such as Micro SDHC support and split-screen mode. Devices are currently available in Europe and Asia, with India and Russia added most recently. The company has a team of over 100 people and is seeking strategic partners and a Series C to scale international expansion. Jolla was formed by former Nokia staff to continue work on the MeeGo-derived Sailfish OS and build a mobile‑OS and smartphone ecosystem. The company has pursued China as a primary market, signing a distribution deal with D.Phone Group and creating a Hong Kong-based alliance that intends to contribute €200 million to the Sailfish ecosystem. Jolla is establishing R&D operations in Hong Kong and elsewhere in China to support market entry. Financially, Jolla said the China Fortune investment is part of its first financing round, which it started last summer and has now concluded. China Fortune previously acquired convertible bonds and exercised an option to buy shares as part of the transaction. Jolla also confirmed both owners and a group of unnamed outside investors participated, and the company plans a second financing round in spring to be financially ready for its product launch. Jolla is a startup formed by the team behind Nokia’s abandoned MeeGo project that has developed the Sailfish mobile operating system and released an SDK. The company showed the Sailfish UI and emphasized multitasking, privacy of notifications, and customisable UI themes. Jolla has partnered with ST‑Ericsson on chipsets for its phones and signed distribution and carrier arrangements including retailer D.Phone in China and a sales and marketing deal with Finnish operator DNA. The firm raised about €10 million in capital from a private consortium of investors. Jolla says Sailfish can be ported to tablets, smart TVs and cars, but will focus primarily on smartphones. The company is targeting growth in Asia—especially China—and plans direct-to-consumer online sales in addition to carrier and retail partnerships.

Total raised

$41M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

May 2016