Yesterday the embedded virtualization vendor Open Kernel Labs closed its first round of investments: $7.6 million kindly provided by Chrysalis Ventures, Neo Technology Ventures and Citrix.
The interest of Citrix in mobile virtualization is very high and goes well beyond the port of its ICA client on the iPhone.
Xen, which powers XenServer, is being ported on ARM architectures by Samsung since a couple of years now and Citrix seems ready to leverage the opportunity.
Just two months ago Ian Pratt, CTO of Xen and Vice President of Advanced Products at Citrix, clearly stated his interest in mobile virtualization.
On top of that the VMware’s acquisition of Trango, a well-known Open Kernel Labs competitor, is further igniting the interest.
Some are already speculating that Citrix may proceed with an acquisition after this first investment.