Xiaomi’s position in the world is creeping up with every passing month and every new phone release. The Chinese company that’s recently rocketed toward the top of the Chinese OEM list to become the world’s fifth largest manufacturer of smartphones is working on global expansion, as previously evidenced by an event they invited us to back in February. At that event they discussed a number of things including possible plans for international expansion, their growing rate of sales as well as their staggering activation numbers showing Xiaomi phones taking 5 of the top 8 most activated smartphones in the world. Xiaomi’s biggest enemy so far has been copyright infringement, as the company has been banned from India before on these grounds.
But that’s not stopping them from trying their hardest to keep expanding outside of China, a market in which they’ve essentially conquered and don’t have nearly as much room to grow, as they could internationally. The company’s latest flagship, the Mi Note LTE, is the biggest change for the company who has previously been content with copying Apple as much as possible. The Mi Note represents a change not only in hardware, which is super sleek, premium and unique, but also in software where they’ve made some big strides to look different from previous MIUI offerings. On Twitter today, Xiaomi Global VP Hugo Barra, excitedly announced the company’s newest landmark investor, Ratan Tata of the Tata Sons’ group. Ratan Tata is an iconic businessman in India and has secured $1.1 billion for Xiaomi’s expansion into his country, bringing the total valuation of Xiaomi to around $45 billion.
The war chest is stacking up in Xiaomi’s favor, giving them plenty of capital to invest in copyright purchasing and licensing internationally, furthering its business outside of China. Xiaomi just announced the Mi4i which will be available in India on April 30th for INR 12,999 (about $200). Xiaomi’s CEO, Jun Lei, announced that with this new capital it will be investing into local R&D and manufacturing in India, and aims to be the country’s largest manufacturer by 2020. The four-year-old company plans its expansion into India this month and plans to begin manufacturing in the country as early as 12 to 18 months from now. This is huge news as Xiaomi ramps up its sales expectations for 2015, citing that they plan on selling over 100 million devices. After seeing the 230 percent increase in sales from Q4 2013 to Q4 2014 there’s little doubt that Xiaomi can meet this goal, especially as they continue to push the boundaries of affordable quality devices.