Cyanogen to Raise $100 Million in Funding, Without Microsoft: Report

Cyanogen, which makes the CyanogenMod custom ROM based on Android, is close to raising $100 million (approximately Rs. 629 crores) in a fresh round of funding, claims a new report.

Bloomberg citing people with knowledge of the matter reports that Cyanogen is all set to reach the landmark without Microsoft while add that Wipro is one of the investors in the new funding round. The report contradicts earlier ones indicating Microsoft would invest in Cyanogen.

Further, the report suggests that Microsoft might not be an investor; though the company is in talks with Cyanogen to help distribute its software, one person said. The Redmond giant is trying to get its suite of apps on Cyanogen's OS distribution, however, further details are limited at the moment.

The report adds citing a person with knowledge of the matter in January that the fresh round of funding could value Cyanogen at $500 million (approximately Rs. 3,147 crores) or even higher. So far, there has been no announcement regarding the funding round from Cyanogen.

At MWC earlier this month, the company behind the popular CyanogenMod operating system announced its re-branding alongside revealing a new partnership with chipmaker Qualcomm. Cyanogen confirmed that it would provide software support for features and UI enhancements of Cyanogen OS to certain Snapdragon processors. It would launch alongside the April release of Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD).

With the collaboration, Cyanogen believed that its software would be adopted easily by OEMs looking for an alternative to Google's Android OS. The features and UI enhancements from Cyanogen would be available for select Snapdragon processors namely Snapdragon 200, Snapdragon 400, and Snapdragon 600 series.