Finnish market journal called Kauppalehti has an interesting article about Jolla and little bit about the financing they have this far

http://www.kauppalehti.fi/omayritys/...s/201207211719

Quick translation to english (rest is google translated cause my time ran out):

MeeGo is "a hobby worth 10 millions"

The financing of Jolla-company is a mystery, although they have promissed to release a new MeeGo smartphone with a quick schedule. An expert thinks, that their plans are possible to implement and achieve because a functional software is already existing.

Manufacturing a MeeGo phone and getting it to break through the market require some capital, but CEO of Jolla, Jussi Hurmola, right now refuses to tell about the donors and the amounts. Fuss around the company, founded last year by ex-nokians, have been increasing since the company told last weekend that they will publish a MeeGo phone of their own later this year.

According to Hurmola, financing for the first phase is ready and done, when the first device will be launched for market. The money will be spent for example to research and development, marketing, manufacturing and also to mezzanine financing, with a result of working and complete device.

"In a modern world, It doesn't anymore require so huge amounts of money. It is like a hobby worth of ten million euros", says Hurmola.

According to six months old financial statements, the company still seems quite modest: the amount of invested capital is 103 700 euros and they have about 89 000 euros cash in store. According to Trade Register data, the capital still is 2500

"There have been lots of changes. The information about the company is outdated", says Hurmola. "We have both domestic and foreign private investors. Private for the reason that we are able to keep the companys strategy in our hands."

Research director Pekka Ylä-Anttila of Economy Research Institute (Elinkeinoelämän tutkimuslaitoksen (ETLA)) is surprised by the news, but thinks the project is possible

"A functional operating system already exists so making and arranging a phone with this quick schedule is feasible", Ylä-Anttila says.

What Ylä-Anttila thinks is interesting is that Nokia still owns lots of MeeGo patents and the upcoming product will become a competitor to Nokia in to the already very crowded mobile phone market.

"My point of view is that the device now in development is made for very narrow customer field. Is the device ment to be for Linux-geeks or will they implement something new into the device what other competitors are not able to provide, is difficult to assess at this stage.

Ecstasy and major changes

The former director of Nokia Tomi Ahonen, now influences in Hong Kong, praises Jolla on Twitter: "All investors, Jolla is the possibility, which you have been waiting for, when you began to follow me (on Twitter). Please find out about it."

According to Wall Street Journal, Jolla is a strong player with a number of employers from Nokia's MeeGo team, including chief engineer Marc Dillon and product manager Jukka Eklund .

Hurmola says that the company currently has approximately 50 employees and by the end of the year a hundred. Main sections are calculated firm's payroll for the occupants. In addition, the company uses a number of sub-contractors, and discussions with large partners are well advanced.

Hurmola says that the unit of production carried out in collaboration with major international companies, which design and produce products that other companies are marketing their own brand names.

MeeGo system is familiar from the Nokia N9.