Cyanogen Is Valued At $1 Billion After Latest Round of Funding

Cyanogen started off as a group of developers making custom ROMs for Android phones but since its inception as registered corporation, it has gained a lot more value and a whole lot of funding. The software-maker wants to take on Google and has raised a lot of cash from well-known sources to help along in that pursuit.

Cyanogen is scaling up in a big way as the company led by Steve Kondik and Kirt McMaster has announced that they raised $80 million in a series C round of funding led by centure-capital firm Premji Invest. Amongst the investors who took part in the funding round, Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm and media bigwig Rupert Murdoch are the prominent names.

Since 2009, Cyanogen has raised $110 million in investments

Cyanogen claims it will use the money to “hire talent and accelerate the development of its open OS platform”. The press release proclaims “Ecosystem Rallies behind Cyanogen’s Open OS Vision,” announcing the new round. It’s interesting to note that Cyongen has managed to draw interest from a varied group of investors. Twitter Ventures is perhaps the most surprising name on the list as earlier reports claimed large players like Samsung, Yahoo, Amazon, and Microsoft taking interest in the software maker who attempts to challenge Google.

Cyanogen’s long term vision sees the company taking on Google’s Android

Although, Google’s Android platform is the dominant share holder in mobile operating systems, Cyanogen has vowed to change that very soon. Even though Cyonogen’s OS is based on Android, the company has made the OS completely open to users and they can modify it as they please and to top it off it even removes Google’s hold over the OS by removing many of Google’s built-in services which are otherwise part of all OEM system builds.

The company is valued at $1 billion, which is a long way from where they started but it is yet to be seen whether the interest shown by investors will ever materialize into partnerships as Cyanogen attempts to replace Google services with partner’s apps and services. Their OS is far from catching up with Google but with big players wanting to topple Google’s rule, Cyanogen might get the help needed to shake up the market.

He is the Chief Content Officer at ProPakistani. Reach out at aadil.s[at]propakistani.pk


  • For the effort they are putting into next-gen Google-free and buttery smooth Android for all devices (most of those left in the wilderness by their OEMs); they are worth much more.

  • i thought you were saying some Pakistani company is worth $1B. Ah my wet dreams!

  • first, fix your article

    1; your article is about Cyanogen inc so fix your picture
    2; Cyanogen inc never started as a group of developers making custom ROM, that’s community based cyanogenMod your talking about.

    • Cyanogen inc did start from the mod community and the group of regular modders joined to establish a company named cyanogen incorporated. If that was not true, the Cyanogen inc would not have been able to to sell or make profits from the cyanogen OS. The mod and the inc are separate divisions now, where the mod is still a not for profit community.

      • and you sir are VERY wrong in your analogy.

        i hate when people just reply for the sake of repling.

        lets see by your analogy ignoring other problems with your post…

        say a company A [juice maker] start new sub company YB with very different portfolio [cap’s maker for boxes that get juice in] and made a deal with another company xyz, WOULD YOU WRITE ABOUT YB with company A logo?

        • First thing I would like to mention is that I was not talking about the logo and I know that the logo is incorrect.

          Secondly, Sir I did NOT make any analogy in my previous comment. I stated the real company’s structure and Cyanogen Inc was indeed formed by Cyanogenmod founders.

          Please read this about page from Cyanogen Inc https://cyngn.com/about and please read the part about Cyanogen Inc to clarify that Cyanogenmod transformed into Cyanogen Inc+mod community. I think this should clearly correct your initial comment.

  • it deserves, they did excellent job to help a lot to the world of Android users. I used CM7 to CM10 and now I can’t due to my Samsung Galaxy Pop SHV-E220S is locked ( I have rooted and tried various times to install CM11 & CM12 and other ROMs but failed ) currently I have stock ROM with 4.4.4 ( updated from 4.1.2 with Samsung Kies )

  • can I found the phones comes with built in CM or MIUI ROMs available here in Karachi?


  • Get Alerts

    Follow ProPakistani to get latest news and updates.


    ProPakistani Community

    Join the groups below to get latest news and updates.



    >