Xiaomi is planning to raise about $1.5 billion in its fifth round of financing, media reports said. The company, which has dominated China’s smartphone market, is talking to investors and banks to roughly raise about $1.5 billion, which would be the largest investment (excluding IPO) raised by any Chinese company backed by venture capital, financial news website Jiemian of the Shanghai United Media Group reported.
Xiaomi is reportedly looking to raise some US$1.5 billion in a new round of funding, and if successful, will be the largest VC investment generated by a Chinese company. This would be the handset maker’s fifth fund-raising exercise and is said to include U.K. investment firm DST Global, which also invested in Alibaba and Facebook. The bulk of the money generated would go toward developing video content for Xiaomi TV, reported local news agency Xinhua, which cited financial news website Jiemian. Xiaomi last month said it was investing up to US$1 billion to expand its internet TV offerings. Its focus in the sector would pit the Beijing-based company against its local peers that have invested in the online TV market, including Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu.
