The Chinese smartphone maker (pronounced she-yow-mee) has filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, and expects to raise at least $10B, valuing them at $100B and making it the world’s largest IPO since Alibaba back in 2014.
The smartphone maker had a big 2017. According to WSJ, Xiaomi’s revenue rose 67% to $18B, and just south of $2B in operating profits.
But that monstrous valuation put a target on their backs
Valued at $46B in 2014, Xiaomi was once lauded as the world’s most valuable startup, becoming the world’s number 3 phone maker after Apple and Samsung.
But soon, brands like Huawei started copying their model, flooding brick-and-mortars with cheap, high-quality phones.
Xiaomi fell to 5th place in the local market. They were shaping up to be another company with a fast rise and even faster fall. Until 2016, when Lei Jun took over as supply chain chief.
They soon became a jack of all trades company, taking stake in hundreds of startups and selling more than 500 products and services, including scooters, drones, and luggage, to 190m monthly users.
Here’s to expansion
The company currently operates in 70 countries (recently beating out Samsung as the top smartphone seller in India) and is now hinting at moving into Europe and North America.
Of course, as US-China trade relations grow more contentious, whether they’ll make it stateside remains to be seen.
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