Borqs aims to integrate with Android

Borqs International, a startup focused on developing an open-source mobile operating system, has raised $7.5 million from 10 investors in its Series A, according to a regulatory filing.

The Beijing-based company had raised $3.96 million from Asset Horizon International, GSR Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ China Fund in February. The target for the round was $7 million at that point, documents show.

New investors include Keystone Ventures and SBI & TH Venture Capital Enterprise.

Borqs has partnerships with China Mobile, Google and Marvell for the development an open mobile operating system and a portfolio of software to run on it, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher of PE Week). The company employs 200 and is working to integrate with Google’s Android operating system.

Part of the company’s offering involves development of a software link between mobile phones and personal computers. The link is designed to make it easier to push RSS feeds and newly developed applications to a subscriber’s mobile phone, according to the company’s website.

Borqs is led by CEO Pat Chan. Board members include GSR’s Weibiao Li, Kleiner’s Zhixiong Zhou, Jing-Chun Sun and Jun Song.

While many startups are looking at layoffs, Borqs is hiring. It has five positions for software developers, two for terminal application engineers and two for application platform developers, its site shows. —Alexander Haislip