Today is a huge day for Xiaomi India, Ratan Tata chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons has acquired a stake in the Chinese smartphone maker. This is the first investment in Xiaomi by an Indian. With a $45 Billion valuation Xiaomi completed its latest funding round of $1.1 Billion. Ratan Tata, has been investing in technology start-ups of late and the smartphone space is something new for Tata Sons.
Its hard to believe that Xiaomi is just a 5 year old company. They are now the third largest smartphone maker globally, No. 1 in China and control 4% of India's dynamic smartphone market as per last quarter.
Recently the company launched the Xiaomi Mi 4i exclusive to India for the moment. In the event, all three big guns of Xiaomi, Lei Jun (CEO & Founder), Bin Lin (President & Co-Founder), and Hugo Barra (VP Xiaomi Global) were present alongwith Manu Jain, India head for Xiaomi, showing the importance of India for Xiaomi as well as the importance of India in the global smartphone space. Which is also evident from the fact that Alipay (part of the Alibaba group) acquired 25% stake in Micromax, our homegrown smartphone manufacturer.
The details of the funding provided by Ratan Tata is not yet known, but one thing is clear that Xiaomi is aiming big for India and this is just a start.
