A firm behind an open source mobile operating system has secured $80m (£54m) in funding from the likes of Twitter, Telefonica and the media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Now in Series C of funding, Cyanogen is being backed by the chip firm Qualcomm, the ISP smartfren, venture capital funds Index Ventures and Aviv Nevo, and the holding firm Access Industries, as it prepares to take on market leaders Android.
Kirt McMaster, chief executive of Cyanogen, said: "We’re committed to creating an open computing platform that fundamentally empowers the entire mobile ecosystem from developers to hardware makers, and most importantly, consumers around the world.
"We’re excited to have the backing of an amazingly diverse group of strategic investors who are supporting us in building a truly open Android."
Cyanogen’s chief project is an open source operating system called CyanogenMod, as well as a commercial distribution called Cyanogen OS, both being built on Android, the world’s most popular mobile operating system.
Following the third funding round the company has raised $110m (£74m) in total.
"We invested in Cyanogen because we’re big proponents of what they’re doing in opening up Android and supporting global and local ecosystem players," said Sandesh Patnam, technology sector lead of Premji Invest.
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"Cyanogen is well positioned to become the third leading mobile OS, and we’re excited to back them in growing their business on a global scale."
