Financial news: Jolla reaches 70M USD of funding

Jolla's funding totals up to 70M USD

Surviving against the big players in the mobile industry is a lot about funding, at least until a start-up gets all their sails up. Jolla, a Finnish company developing Sailfish OS mobile operating system, has struggled for six years against the real big players like Google's Android and that hasn't always been easy. One of the former Nokia directors told them in the beginning that they will need at least 100M USD to break into the business they aim at. Reaching the end of 5th financing round, Jolla has now received 70% of that, but they are still far away of their goal.

Russian company to use Sailfish OS components

Open Mobile Platform hiring developers 

Update, May 11, 2016: Jolla officially confirms licensing of Sailfish OS to a Russian company "Open Mobile Platform".

May 6, 2016, Innopolis, Tatarstan, Russia. New company "Открытая мобильная платформа" (Open Mobile Platform) is about to begin the development of domestic Russian operating system for mobile devices. The new mobile operating system is suggested to be based on components of Sailfish OS. The company is already hiring employees. Russia aims to reduce the use of foreign mobile operating systems from the current 95% to 75% by 2020, and to 50% by 2025. Android and iOS down?

[News] Jolla agrees debts, financing of $12M, new employees

Application for debt restructuring cancelled. Year 2016 secured with new financing. New employees being interviewed.

In autumn 2015 there were sad news: Employees laid off, debts on hold, file for debt restructuring. Jolla's 3rd death valley, pretty close to actual bankruptcy, was passed on December and now Jolla shares quite positive news.

This is a news analysis on Jolla's Press Release published on May 3, 2016, reflecting the latest news to those shared back in 2015. Sailfish OS seems to be having the sails up quite well right now. Will there be some wind too?

[guide] Install Sailfish OS on Fairphone 2

Olivier Hebert, CTO at Fairphone.
Antti Saarnio, Chairman of the Board at Jolla. 

Updated on Marc 26, 2017 

Your Fairphone 2 can now run Sailfish OS, gesture based mobile operating system by Jolla, Finland. Unofficial version was made available by Sailfish OS porter Matti Lehtimäki. 

In the official side I had another interview with Fairphone. Below these news, there's a guide using fastboot method which is now outdated. Installing guide is up to date at merwiki.

[News] Jolla to continue Sailfish OS development

Financing round for series C closed, Jolla bypasses 3rd death valley

Summarizing a very interesting community meeting and a later press release by Jolla. Antti Saarnio, Head of Jolla, shares positive news on Jolla's financial situation. Juhani Lassila, Head of Communication, shares us some more details on both the meeting outcome and the press release.

It's not the delays, it's that the world is slow

Open letter to Jolla community: Through the tough times

Antti Saarnio, Head of Jolla shares reasoning for Jolla's  current financial issues and explains the problems in the crowdfunded Jolla Tablet campaign. The main issue behind all the problems is that Jolla is still waiting for the world to discover Sailfish OS as an alternative option to Android and iOS.

[news] Sailfish India launch set to 2016

Sailfish India: Intex, Snapdeal, Jolla, TimesInternet

October 22, 2015: Antti Saarnio, head of Jolla Oy (developer of Sailfish OS mobile operating system), joined BRICS meeting of the communications ministers in Moscow, Russia. The meeting discusses on co-operation between BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Sailfish India launch takes place on Q1/2016

Big news announced at #MWCS15

Soon: Mobile World Congress Shanghai, 15 - 17 July, 2015

Antti Saarnio, Chairman of the board at Jolla, is excited about the news coming up next week. What are we waiting for? Roadmap for Open Source Sailfish OS 2. Micromax delivering Sailfish OS devices. News from Russia. Jolla Tablet shipping confirmed for July. Some of these or something totally different?

Update: One of the news will be a new phone manufactured in India, and the news are big: "This should be the biggest announcement so far from Jolla", Antti Saarnio says

[news] New company for devices, Jolla changes CEO

Translated company news

Tomi Pienimäki is moving aside to another Finnish company, and a new company focusing on Jolla mobile devices business will be founded. Antti Saarnio will take the helm in operations at Jolla. The company will inform more on their licensing plans of Sailfish OS during next week at Mobile World Congress in Shanghai.

This post is translated from Finnish, originally posted by Perttu Pitkänen for Taloussanomat, a Finnish business magazine

[News] New Sailfish OS phone manufacturer confirmed

Jolla's Antti Saarnio at Hong Kong launch event, 2014

New manufacturer of Sailfish OS phones is announced before summer holidays

Jolla might not announce a new phone of their own, as they are focused on delivering Sailfish OS mobile operating system to other manufacturers.

Update: New Sailfish OS phone manufacturer is located in India, and it will be announced during Mobile World Congress Shanghai on July 15 - 17, 2015

[News] Sailfish expands in BRICS countries, Africa on focus

Jolla announces Sailfish Africa - the Sailfish OS mobile ecosystem for Africa

South Africa, Johannesburg, May 28, 2015: Jolla Ltd., the Finnish mobile company and developer of open mobile operating system Sailfish OS, today announced that it is set to build a Sailfish OS ecosystem in Africa starting from South Africa.

[Translated news] Interview with Antti Saarnio, CEO at Jolla

YLE News, Finland:
Jolla wishes to cooperate with Nokia

YLE News interviewed Antti Saarnio, CEO at Jolla at the Slush conference on Wednesday. News was published in Finnish today, here's the same in English:

Jolla, who introduced a new tablet device at Slush conference, searches major manufacturers as partners. Finnish companies must work together, says Antti Saarnio, Chairman at Jolla.

Jolla case - Record breaking financing

Image by Jukka Holm, shared in Twitter

Event presentation, IF14:
Jolla - Tractor Pulling Project

Antti Saarnio sharing the story from Jolla's beginning at Innovation Forum 2014, Finland this morning.

Back in 2011 Jolla gathered breaking record of 30M€ financing with just few men who are making impossible to possible, believing to it

Jolla phone news: Price down, new seller

Verkkokauppa.com starts selling Jolla phones in Finland for a price of 389,90€

Image of the shopping site (translated to english by Google):

Until today, Jolla was sold in Finland exclusively by DNA Shops. Now verkkokauppa.com joins the competition with a slightly lower price. Verkkokauppa.com is already selling Jolla, and promises a delivery to Finland in 3-5 working days. Jolla is available with either black or white The Other Half, additional TOH's (see images) have a price tag of 29,90€



Unfortunately Verkkokauppa.com does not deliver abroad. However, Jolla is planning to start to sell phones in India by September 2014, and in Russia even before that, according to Antti Saarnio. Also China is planned for this year.



Jolla phone is also available in EU, Norway and Switzerland via Jolla's own webshop shop.jolla.com

Sources (finnish): verkkokauppa.com, digitoday.fi

Jolla News: Jolla at MWC2014

Jolla attends Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona

The Mobile World Congress 2014 will be held for the second time at the Fira Gran Via venue, a new, cutting-edge exhibition and conference facility which provides greater space and flexibility. The venue is located in   L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 10 km from the airport.

Fira Gran Via
Av. Joan Carles I, 64 08908 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona)

Web Click Here
Tel +34 932 332000
Fax +34 932 332080
email mwc@firabarcelona.com

Jolla: Stand 1B25, Hall 1

Jolla stand is nicely located. It's found just a bit left from the main entrance, opposite to NTT Docomo stand and next to Pro Mexico. Huawei, phone manufacturer with 5,6% market share and LG, phone manufacturer with 4,8% market share (Q4/2013) have the biggest areas in the same hall.

What to expect from Jolla?

In the last year Jolla was also present, but instead of a stand they had a smaller congress room. According to Jolla's CEO Tomi Pienimäki participating is a big investment. He has also confirmed that we are not going to see another phone model yet, but another model is in Jolla's plans, probably revealed earliest at 2015. Instead of a new phone, huge improvements are expected to be revealed to the Sailsfish Operating System.

New features and bug fixes are vital to Jolla. According to Jolla's Chairman of the Board Antti Saarnio, Jolla phone is currently been very well received among pioneer customers, but the product still needs to finish in order to be the product of all the people. This should be done within a few months, Saarnio promises.
 
Also the fourth "The Other Half" will be revealed during the happening. Backcover color "Poppy Red" is familiar to the 1st stage pre-order customers, who received their Jolla's already with this color, added with an exclusive text "The First One". Also the ambience backgournd is different - in this new TOH there's twisted stribes.

Sailfish OS is developed on Nokia's Meego

Nokia is currently using Windows in their phones, but it's confirmed that they will reveal their first Android phone during MWC2014. This model will probably not be the only Android Phone by Nokia, according to Wall Street Journal (article 10-Feb-2014).

Is it possible that we'll see a Sailfish Nokia one day? "We are supposed to provide the operating system [Sailfish OS] to others, also to the big operators in the sector", Antti Saarnio says.

Jolla at MWC2014: Contact information, description, interactive map

Search for word "Jolla" here: http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/2014-exhibitors/

Sources: IDC, Wall street Journal, YLE (finnish), Tekniikka ja Talous (finnish)