Android competitor Sailfish receives investment, pulls out of ‘classic startup death spiral’

Finnish mobile operating system maker Jolla, the company behind Sailfish OS, has received the first portion of an investment that chairman Antii Saarnio said will provide some financial stability for the company.

Last month, Jolla temporarily let go about half its staff and file for debt restructuring after not closing a $10.6 million Series C financing round. The mobile OS maker is not disclosing the size of the Series C it just closed, nor is it revealing who the investors are, though Saarnio said it’s a group of investors.

“It’s a sizable investment what we are receiving but it also includes some other instruments which we are continuing to negotiate at the moment,” Saarnio said.

Saarnio told TechCrunch the company was cancelling the layoffs, but added many staffers had also resigned, so it remains unclear how many of them will be back with the company.

Saarnio said Jolla will focus on licensing the Sailfish OS to industrial customers, rather than general consumers. Additionally, the company is considering its options for its crowdfunded tablet. Most backers of the project have yet to receive their Jolla tablets because of ongoing delays to shipments.

Source: Jolla, TechCrunch

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