Xiaomi

Xiaomi is a Chinese consumer electronics company that designs smartphones, smart home and connected devices, and, since 2024, electric vehicles. It was founded on 6 April 2010 in Beijing by Lei Jun, a former Kingsoft executive, together with six co-founders including Lin Bin. Xiaomi released its first phone, the Mi 1, in August 2011 and grew into one of the largest smartphone sellers in the world; it is described as the third-largest smartphone seller globally as of 2025. Its headquarters remain in Beijing, where it opened a new campus in July 2019.

Xiaomi raised capital in rapid, escalating private rounds. It raised $41 million in a Series A in 2010 and $90 million in a Series B in December 2011. In June 2012 it raised $216 million in a Series C at a $4 billion valuation, with institutional participants including Temasek Holdings, IDG Capital, Qiming Venture Partners and Qualcomm. In December 2014 it raised $1.1 billion at a valuation of more than $45 billion in a round led by All-Stars Investment Limited, the Hong Kong technology fund run by former Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Ji. That round made Xiaomi one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world at the time.

In June 2018 Xiaomi completed an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising $4.72 billion, and its shares trade under the code 1810. It is a component of the Hang Seng Index. For 2024 the company reported revenue of CN¥365.9 billion, operating income of CN¥24.5 billion and net income of CN¥23.6 billion. In March 2021 Xiaomi announced a $10 billion, ten-year investment in electric vehicles; the SU7 sedan launched in March 2024 and the YU7 SUV followed in June 2025.

For investors, Xiaomi is a case of early-stage Chinese venture capital compounding through a hardware business. IDG Capital and Qiming Venture Partners were in the cap table by the 2012 Series C, when the company was valued at $4 billion, and the valuation rose more than tenfold in roughly two and a half years to the 2014 round. Backers that entered in the 2010 to 2012 rounds reached a public listing about eight years after founding. The path also shows the limits of late private marks: the 2014 round was priced at more than $45 billion, and holders who entered there were relying on the subsequent public market and the later move into vehicles to extend the return.