Borqs and its investors bet heavily on Android platform. As a matter of fact, the company announced that it has closed a $17.4 million Series B round of venture financing. Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) led this round, which included participation from current investors, GSR Ventures – the Mayfield Fund China affiliate – as well as Keytone Ventures. As a part of the investment, Mohan Kumar of NVP will join Borqs’ board of directors.
And what Borqs does? They develop mobile software products for operators, and their client-side software relies on Android, providing carriers with the ability to create a consistent and branded user interface experience that can work across different types of smartphones. Moreover, Borqs also allows carriers to create branded application store fronts.
So if I understood this correctly, they make custom UIs for carriers that sit on top of Android platform. In that sense, and if they succeed in their business, we could see mobile operators from all around the world starting to offer not one, but few Android phones, all which come with a consistent branded interface.
Borqs’ press release continues saying their software enables phone manufacturers or mobile operators to launch Android-based 3G phones or services in less than six months.
Sounds interesting and I’ve no doubts we’ll see more from Borqs in the future…