(Telecompaper) Cyanogen, the maker of an alternative Android operating system, has raised USD 80 million in series C financing. The fresh cash will help the US-based company hire more staff and accelerate development of its mobile OS. The financing was led by Premji Invest and includes participation from new strategic investors Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm, Spanish operator Telefonica, Indonesia's Smartfren Telecom, Index Ventures, Access Industries, Rupert Murdoch, Vivi Nevo and several yet to be announced partners. Existing investors Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, and Tencent also participated. To date, Cyanogen has raised a total USD 110 million in funding. In addition to its commercial product Cyanogen OS, the company runs the open-source project CyanogenMod.