BackXiaomi said to raise about $1 billion in new financing round
Xiaomi used a combination of high-end features, low prices to lure customers from Samsung, Apple and now is expanding into content, services
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Hong Kong: Xiaomi Corp raised about $1 billion in a new funding round that values China’s largest smartphone vendor at $45 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The financing was led by All-Stars Investment Ltd. and included Yuri Milner’s DST and GIC Pte, the person said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. Joy Han, a spokeswoman for Beijing-based Xiaomi, declined to comment in an e-mail.
Xiaomi founder and chief executive officer Lei Jun is expanding overseas and unveiling new products including an air purifier to build on growth in China, where Xiaomi overtook Samsung Electronics Co. in smartphone sales. The company used a combination of high-end features and low prices to lure customers from Samsung and Apple Inc., and now is expanding into content and services.
In the September quarter, Xiaomi was the world’s third- largest vendor behind Samsung and Apple Inc. Lei plans to sell 100 million phones next year.
Esther Woo, chief operating officer for All-Stars Investment, declined to comment in an e-mail. Leonid Solovyev, a spokesman for DST, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. GIC declined to comment in a text message.
Revenue doubling
Xiaomi’s revenue is set to more than double this year to exceed $12 billion, according to estimates from Neil Shah, Mumbai-based research director for devices at Counterpoint Research.
At $45 billion, Xiaomi would be valued at 3.75 Shah’s estimate for this year. That is higher than any publicly traded personal-computer or mobile-phone maker, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Apple trades at 3.73 times sales.
Xiaomi had been in talks for funding that would value the company at $40 billion to $50 billion, people familiar with the matter said in November.
The company doesn’t make its own devices and relies on contract manufacturers, including FIH Mobile Ltd. and Inventec Corp., to build them. The company also sells to consumers from its website to keep costs down.
Xiaomi more than tripled global smartphone shipments to 17.3 million units in the third quarter, from 5.6 million a year earlier, International Data Corp. reported 29 October. Its market share more than doubled to 5.3% from 2.1%.
The $1 billion fundraising was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg
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