Xamarin raises $54M in funding to bring Microsoft's programming language to other platforms
Xamarin, the San Francisco-based company that allows developers to code applications for a variety of different platforms using Microsoft's C# programming language, announced today that it has raised a $54 million Series C round of financing.
Context & Ripple Effects
Xamarin had already attracted a $12 million funding round in 2012 for its mobile-development approach. The larger Series C gives the company substantially more backing to pursue its pitch of using C# across multiple application platforms.
The financing matters to Microsoft because Xamarin is built around its programming language, making a better-funded independent toolmaker part of the broader C# developer ecosystem.
First-order effects
- Xamarin gains $54 million to expand the tools and support behind its cross-platform C# development model.
- Microsoft's C# ecosystem gains a more heavily funded route for developers building applications beyond Microsoft-controlled platforms.
Second-order effects
- Development teams evaluating Xamarin have a better-capitalized vendor behind an alternative to maintaining separate platform-specific application codebases.
- Xamarin's larger funding base raises the competitive bar for other development-tool providers seeking developers who build for multiple platforms.
Third-order effects
- If developers continue to favor shared-code tooling, mobile application development shifts more of its value toward language ecosystems and cross-platform toolchains rather than platform-specific workflows.
The trend: Cross-platform development tools are becoming a strategic way for programming-language ecosystems to retain developers as applications span more devices and operating systems.