HMD Global agreed an acquisition of assets from enterprise and cybersecurity specialist Valona Labs, paving the way for the opening of an R&D centre in Finland to boost a software play.

In a statement, HMD Global explained the facility will “specialise in software, security related intellectual property and services” as it seeks to accelerate a shift to being “a combined hardware and services company”.

“As a company that believes every phone should be built upon the foundations of security, reliability and dependability, we are proud to announce the acquisition of assets of Valona Labs, a renowned and trusted mobile software business,” chief product officer Juho Sarvikas explained.

The centre will be initially used to develop the vendor’s global data roaming service HMD Connect.

It will then develop mobile services including 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 company stated.

It plans to swiftly commence a recruitment drive for “technical talent”.