Xiaomi, the fast-growing Chinese hardware company best known for its low-cost smartphones, confirmed today that has raised $1.1 billion in new funding at a valuation of $45 billion. In a Facebook post, Xiaomi co-founder and president Bin Lin said the round was raised from investors including All-Stars Investment, DST, GIC, Hopu Fund, and Yunfeng Capital.
Xiaomi’s latest round was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week. Its present valuation of $45 billion is a whopping increase over its previous valuation of $10 billion in August 2013, which Xiaomi director Hans Tung confirmed after its last funding announcement.
The company will likely use the capital to increase sales of its smartphones in its key growth markets of India, Southeast Asia, Brazil, and Mexico. In 2013, Xiaomi said it sold about 19 million phones, a number it hopes will more than double to 40 million units by the end of this year. In October, the company became the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor by shipment volume, according to both Strategy Analytics and IDC.
“This is an affirmation of Xiaomi’s stellar results in the four years, and heralds in a new phase for the company,” said Lin, adding that Xiaomi will unveil a new flagship device next month (reportedly a new smartphone that will make its first appearance at CES).
Source Techcrunch
