Neverware has today announced that it has started a Series B funding round and specifically name-dropped Google as one of the round’s initial investors. The announcement does detail that other investors will be onboard but only names Google in the current announcement. While it is interesting whenever Google invests in another company what makes this investment more interesting than usual, is Neverware’s line of business – Chromebooks.
Neverware doesn’t actually make Chromebooks, but what it does do is offer up its CloudReady operating system. This is a operating system that is akin to Chrome OS as it is based off of Chromium OS, which underlines Chrome OS. In paricular, CloudReady offers owners of legacy PC and laptop devices the option to make use of their Chromium OS-based operating system and thereby, making use of a Chrome OS-like experience. Which is likely why Google is interested in helping the company financially.
As this is a Chromium OS-based solution and one which can be applied to any computer, and “regardless of manufacturer or age,” backing Neverware in this respect will presumably allow Chromium OS to further extend its reach into the enterprise sector. Which exactly the goal of this round of funding with Neverware’s CEO, Andrew Bauer, stating the funds raised from this Series B “will be the first step of our expansion into the enterprise.” With the announcement further explaining that IT teams who employ the use of CloudReady will be able to make use of easy integration with Google’s cloud-based Admin console, and by association, Chrome Enterprise. While it does seem heavily likely that Google is keen to make it easier for any Chromium OS solution to gain greater traction in the enterprise and education sectors, Chromebooks in general have been doing extremely well in the latter of late. Not only are more manufacturers releasing more education-focused models, and more routinely, but Chromebooks also seem to be doing well in terms of general adoption levels with educational institutions. Speaking of which, when it comes to CloudReady, Neverware notes its operating system in in use in 21 countries globally, including the US where the software has been used by more than 1,000 school districts in 50 states.