Two Open Source Venture Capital Rounds From This Week

by Sam Dean - Jul. 10, 2009Comments (2)

This week brought more venture capital funding for open source players. Google's Chrome OS isn't the only news on the netbook operating system front for the week. Jolicloud, which has an Internet operating system for netbooks, has announced the completion of a $4.2M Series A funding round led by Atomico Ventures, in conjunction with Mangrove Capital Partners. Meanwhile, Borqs, which has an open mobile phone operating system based on Android, has raised $17.4 million in Series B funding.

Jolicloud is founded by Tariq Krim, the founder of Netvibes, one of Europe's successful Web startups. In conjunction with its funding, Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Atomico Ventures, Skype, Joost, Kazaa and Joltid, will take a seat on the board. Michael Jackson, partner at Mangrove Capital Partners and former COO of Skype, will participate as an advisor. Entrepreneur Gilles Samoun, CEO of fotonauts and founder of Qualys will also join the board. Jolicloud is only in alpha with its netbook operating system at this point, but intends to deliver a beta later this year.

Borqs is a Beijing-based company, which the Silicon Valley Business Journal says has operations in Sunnyvale, California--not far from Google's headquarters. It makes mobile software products for wireless service providers, already has deals with China Mobile, and is pursuing an Android-based, customized operating system for mobile phones. You can find out more about the two-year old startup and its efforts here.

Netbooks and smartphones have remained hot product categories, despite the down economy. In all likelihood, we'll see more funding for open source efforts in these areas, and even continuing convergence between the two mobile categories. 

 


Browse Blog

Dawn Giorgio uses OStatic to support Open Source, ask and answer questions and stay informed. What about you?



2 Comments
 

It is always good to see good open source technologies raising money. This shows confidence in the technology and trend.


0 Votes

Here we see the VC herd mentality in play again. Open source VC funding was up something like 200% last year. Look for similar numbers for cloud computing startups this year. I remember when Kim Polese and Spike Source were all the rage couple of years ago and they just seem to have fallen off the wayside. Open source companies are services businesses for the most part and are being valued as such and its just hard to generate the 30-50% IRRs that VCs are looking for. I hope the trend continues but it is going to be hard IMO.


0 Votes
Share Your Comments

If you are a member, to have your comment attributed to you. If you are not yet a member, Join OStatic and help the Open Source community by sharing your thoughts, answering user questions and providing reviews and alternatives for projects.