Kylinsoft, also known as Kylin Software, has snapped up around 3 billion yuan ($417.7 million) in a fresh equity funding round at a pre-money valuation of around 8.4 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).
As the subsidiary of Shanghai-listed China National Software & Service Company Limited, KylinSoft’s recent round has roped in its parent company, which committed a total of 2 billion yuan ($278.4 million) in the round. Post financing, the parent firm will see its stake at Kylin increase by 17.6% to 47.2%, according to an exchange filing on Thursday.
The rest of the 1-billion yuan ($139.2 million) comes from several investors including the likes of China Mobile Capital Holding, which is under state-owned telecommunication firm China Mobile Communications Group; an investment unit under Beijing State-owned Capital Operation and Management; and CCB Financial Asset Investment, an investment platform of China Construction Bank.
KylinSoft is known as the homegrown developer of China’s first open-source desktop operating system, openKylin 1.0.
KylinSoft’s products, which are based on Linux, a type of open-source operating system that anyone can use, modify, and distribute freely, are widely adopted by the Chinese government, as the country’s earlier attempts to cut its reliance on Western OS, including Windows and MacOS.
The proceeds will help KylinSoft in expanding its R&D and product line, as well as accelerating the use cases of its products, according to an exchange filing in December 2024.
