Update March 23: Cyanogen announced that it’s closed an $80 million funding round — falling short of the $110 million report.
The Android interface builder Cyanogen is said to be close to raising a $110 million funding round. Microsoft had been in talks with the startup to become an investor, but is now said to have bowed out, Bloomberg reports.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Cyanogen needs more capital to get its user interface software onto more Android devices, says Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
PremjiInvest (Wipro Ltd. Chairman Azim Premji’s investment firm) will be among the investors in the new funding round, Bloomberg reports. If the funding round comes to pass, it could propel Cyanogen to a $500 million valuation.
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Reports in late January said that Microsoft intended to make an estimated $70 million investment in Cyanogen to become a “minority investor.” Those reports turned out to be false, and the report today that Microsoft has backed out could be false, too.
Bloomberg’s sources say Microsoft remains in talks with Cyanogen to get Microsoft software integrated with Cyanogen’s. The publication provided no further detail on the Microsoft software in question and how it would complement Cyanogen’s Android fork.
Cyanogen has some top-shelf investors behind it already. These include Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, and Redpoint Ventures.
