1. Startup

Smartfren Became One of Investors in Cyanogen’s Series C Funding

One interesting point that we can draw from the series C funding sealed by popular Android ROM developer Cyanogen is the involvement of Smartfren Telecom in the round as one of the investors. Although not being the main investor, this maneuver strengthened Smartfren’s blueprint of making Cyanogen as its preferred OS for the Andromax series.

As being stated his official press release, Smartfren’s CEO Deputy Richard Tan stated that Smartfren is more than glad to partner with Cyanogen and bring the highly secure technology along with its excellent performance to Indonesia. He said, “With Cyanogen being our preferred OS for the Andromax series, users may look forward to superior mobile computation that may trigger greater innovations.”

Smartfren seems to keep looking for fresh ideas to win the low-end Android smartphone competition. It’s now facing a great challenge as Google and its three partner manufacturers have just launched Android One, which is available at affordable price.

Almost two years ago, Smartfren became the member of Ubuntu’s Carrier Advisory Group. Unfortunately, Ubuntu has yet succeeded in producing its own smartphone series until today, while its OS has been made compatible with Android-based smartphone. This time, Cyanogen, which serves as an Android-based alternative, offers new bullets for Smartfren.

We are looking to confirm about the reason behind Smartfren’s involvement in the funding round and will come to you once we know why.