Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has raised $1.1 billion from a series of investors including DST Global, Singapore’s GIC, Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital, Hopu Fund, and All-Stars Investment among others at a valuation of $45 billion, co-founder Bin Lin has said on Facebook.
Xiaomi had last raised funds in August last year, where it had secured an undisclosed amount at $10 billion valuation. Prior to this, it had raised around $350 million across three different rounds and also reportedly secured a $1 billion loan from 29 banks in October 2014.
While Lin didn’t disclose any specific plans for this investment, Xiaomi will likely use this capital to strengthen its device sales in growing markets like India and Brazil among others. Last month, Xiaomi’s India head Manu Kumar Jain had claimed that they had sold one million handsets in India in five months. Xiaomi’s vice president of international operations Hugo Barra had also earlier said that India is Xiaomi’s second largest market after China and also the fastest market.
In fact, Xiaomi is looking at making its smartphones in India, after struggling to match the demand for its Mi handsets in the country. Barra had said in November that production in India will likely begin in a year or two.
In dec, we reached a major milestone – 1 mn phones sold in India! Thank u for your love and support. @MiIndiaOfficial pic.twitter.com/LSXijujP87
— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) December 25, 2014
Globally, the company claims to be one among the top three players and Lin claimed that they sold 61.12 million smartphones in 2014, up 227% on a yearly basis. The revenues also grew by 135% to CNY74.3 billion (around $12 billion) for 2014. While Lin didn’t disclose Xiaomi’s profit in 2014, it is likely to be small, since the company sells its devices almost at cost. Xiaomi reported a profit of $56 million in 2013 on revenues of $4.3 billion.
New Products
Xiaomi will also likely use this investment to build new products. The company launched Redmi 2 yesterday and is planning to launch its next flagship phone later this month. In India, it introduced 4G variant of Redmi Note last month and is apparently working on bringing Mi TV, Mi 4 and Mi Band to the country.
Xiaomi also got a reprieve last month, allowing them to sell Qualcomm-based handsets after it was stopped by the Delhi High Court from importing & selling handsets in India that infringe on Ericsson’s standard essential patents (SEP).
Also read: Trends and developments in the Handset segment in India in 2014
Note: This investment was announced on December 29, 2014, while we were on a break.
