NICTA spin-out OK Labs scores $US7.6m venture funds

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 20 January 2009 08:04

Business IT - Technology

A NICTA spin-out company that aims to have its software at the heart of millions of mobile phones and broadband devices has secured $US7.6m in funding from US venture capitalists.

Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs) has developed an operating system kernel for cellphones and other devices that is designed to allow the core processor to run both the real-time OS that handles communications and the OS that handles user features in a virtualised environment.

This, OK Labs claims enables cellphone makers to reducedcosts through a reduced bill of materials and to reduce product development times by separating features and functions from core communications and minimising the chance of these being disrupted.

The investment has come from venture capital firms Chrysalis Ventures and Neo Technology Ventures, and also from enterprise application delivery company Citrix Systems, with Chrysalis making the bulk of the investment.

OK Labs co-founder and chief technology officer Dr Gernot Heiser would not reveal the amount of equity sold under the deal but said that NICTA was no longer the majority shareholder.

"The team at OK Labs has worked very hard to achieve this result. This is a great endorsement of the OK team and the research that came out of NICTA," he said, adding that "the strategic alliance with Citrix will help our technology to achieve its full potential, which goes well beyond virtualisation."

OK Labs said the investment "cements the company's status as one of the world's leading suppliers of embedded virtualisation software for mobile phones and broadband consumer-electronics devices."
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