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We’d heard Cyanogen recently secured a massive wad of cash in Series C funding, and now that news has been made official. The company reportedly raked in $80 million of fresh investments from a sizable and noteworthy group of ventures and companies, making it $110 million that they’ve raised to date and should put the company’s valuation at just around $1 billion.
On the list were Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm Incorporated, Telefónica Ventures, Smartfren Telecom, Index Ventures, Access Industries, Rupert Murdoch, Vivi Nevo. They were joined by existing investors Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, and Tencent Holdings Ltd. There were more, though Cyanogen is opting not to disclose who at this time.
There were rumors rampant early on that Microsoft would be billed as a minority investor in this round of funding, though that rumor was later debunked. That doesn’t mean the two didn’t at least talk about it, though, so there’s nothing that stops it from happening at any point in the future.
The growing interest in Cyanogen likely stems from a long-term vision the company has set forth to create a new Android-based ecosystem to make it more approachable for budding device makers than going the Google route. We’ve already seen the tangible results of the partnership in phones like the OnePlus One and Micromax’s Yureka phone, and even Qualcomm has decided to team up with them to make Cyanogen OS available on Snapdragon development prototype devices.
The exact plan for the future is still unclear to the public, but to be able to generate $80 million from a group of money-flooded companies and individuals they have to be onto something big. Let’s hope it won’t take long to find out.
“should put the company’s valuation at just over half a million dollars.”
Billion, not million.
“The growing interest in Cyanogen likely stems from a long-term vision the company has set forth to create a new Android-based ecosystem to make it more approachable for budding device makers than going the Google route”
Yeah, because the Android space is suffering from not enough fragmentation and too much control. Oh, and another app store sure sounds good to me. Woo.
You’re preaching to the choir. I can’t believe the nutty things they’ve said and gotten into since becoming incorporated. Even if a company cóúld carve out a newly relevant (or even dominant) position with software based on Android, Cyanogen is not going to be able to do it.
I was optimistic about it when they first became a company because I thought that Cyanogenmod and the people behind it would get out of the grassroots movement Cyanogenmod started out in. I thought that they would reward themselves for all the work they used to do for free as well as improve upon an already good situation by securing more (monetary) resources and people to do what they used to do even better.
Now all that seems to be happening is court disagreements about exclusivity (i.e. Micromax), making alternate versions of Cyanogenmod for specific vendors (Oneplus) and spouting nonsense about taking the OS all of their work is based on away from its owner because I don’t even know why.
It’s time to get back to what made Cyanogenmod great in the first place. Don’t go all corporate and money-crazed while also making the mistake of not making great software that improves upon stock Android. Keep doing what you used to do well and quit being crazy.
I really like cm and I would like to get away from Google controlling so much of my life. It may be many years down the road but Google having so much influence on people’s lives will become a problem.
Then stop using Android?
Start using your brain.
I believe I did when I suggested you stop using Android if you don’t like Google “controlling” so much of your life. Because the brain processes thoughts, you know? I don’t believe that your brain took the time to process your reply to me though. Using anything that is provided by Google is a choice, or did Google strip that choice away from you admist their control over your life?
Why are you so short sighted in your well thought out response? I have been an android user for many years and the unnecessarily invasive nature that the gapps have taken on lately is not cool. Since android is open source, if someone can make it work well without all the gapps I’m all for it. If you don’t mind Google knowing everything about your life that’s your business but I have a problem with it.
I only worked with what I was given from your previous response. I simply did not understand how Google was controling your life. Google only knows what you allow them to know, you opt into cloud of saved data when you hit the agree boxes/buttons. There are also a plethora of apps/services that you can deny them your information. That is why I made the suggestion that perhaps you shouldn’t use Android if you’re worried about a search giant’s influence on your life. No disrespect but it seems fairly elementary to me that if you don’t like something you’d do best not to use it, nor give in to it is all.
You’re looking at the now and I’m looking at the future. To each his own.
How then do you suggest they keep up with the competition and “fragmented updating system” where OEMs take forever to do a patch?
The movement to decompose Android into smaller and easily updatable parts, controlled by Google, (like play services) essentially enable them to build and release updates in smaller iterations without putting OEMs into the equation and risk delays. Although the trade off is that Google gets more control and Android becomes less “open”, it’s already better than what the some of the competition is doing. Many issues that would otherwise require an OTA few years back can now be patched through a Play Store update.
It will be interesting to see how CM deals with this problem once they get OEMs working with them. For all you know they will come out with their own service packages as well
I don’t mind integration as seamlessness is great, but at what cost? I shouldn’t have to provide you with every detail of my life to use an app. Put your ads in, make me pay for it, fine, but don’t be ridiculously invasive and expect me to be okay with it. I know Google makes money through ad revenue but I am an Android user who doesn’t mind paying for something. How about a pay for an gapp with minimal permissions option? As it stands if there is an option to use something different I will use that option. I’m looking at things from a long term perspective and I don’t like what I see way down the road.
Yeah not sure what CM is thinking here. With google now going open api we have a chance to finally get that star trek future we’ve been fantasizing about, where you can talk to your phone and it can anticipate your needs.
Sounds like CM is trying to pull a Samsung and reinvent the wheel. Android is google based and trying to make it otherwise will just break what isnt broken.
Money changes folks.
Cyanogen is well positioned to become the 3rd leading mobile OS, investors are excited to back them in growing their business on a global scale