Hong Kong's KaiOS gets $50m Series B

Existing investors Google and Chinese telecom giant TCL Holdings also participated. The fresh capital will be used to grow the company's ecosystem of app development and service provision partners as well as expand into new markets with an emphasis on developing economies.

KaiOs specializes in providing operational infrastructure that caters to the special requirements of a class of smart phones known as feature phones. These mobiles are characterized by less advanced, often older, handset models that have limited online capabilities and display screens that are not touch sensitive.

The feature phone segment is said to account for as much as one-third of global handset shipments. KaiOs claims to be the leading operating system in this space with more than 100 million devices shipped to about 100 countries. It is targeting a market of 1.5 billion feature phone users.

"KaiOS is already the third mobile OS globally and one of the most impactful tech start-ups in the world," Denis Barrier, co-founder and CEO of Cathay Innovation, said in a statement. "It has the potential to transform the lives of billions of people by giving them access to the internet for the first time."

In addition to Google, KaiOs has partnered with Facebook, Twitter, and Orange in recent months as part of expansions into India and Africa. Its platform is compatible with chipsets from major manufacturers, including Qualcomm, and supports 3G, 4G, wi-fi, GPS, and near-field communication. App developers can create content for the service and have it published via a portal called KaiStore.

Cathay Innovation backs early-stage technology start-ups across North America, Europe and Greater China via offices in Beijing, Shanghai, San Francisco and Paris. Target companies have already developed a product and established a customer base that is set to scale in the VC firm's core geographies. Initial check sizes typically range from $3-15 million.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Media
• Technology
• Early-stage
• TMT
• Hong Kong (China)
• Cathay Capital Private Equity