26 April 2015, New Delhi – Leading smartphone vendor Xiaomi announced today that Ratan Tata, chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has made an investment in the company.
This is the first investment by any Indian into Xiaomi. In December last year, Xiaomi raised US$1.1 billion at a valuation of US$45 billion.
On 23 April, 2015, Xiaomi unveiled a new flagship smartphone Mi 4i in New Delhi, India. Over 1,500 Mi India fans packed the Siri Fort Auditorium to witness the presentation. In the first 2 days of registrations opening for the Mi 4i sale on Flipkart, more than 225,000 customers had registered to purchase the phone.
Mi 4i is a high-end flagship smartphone created especially for Indian consumers. Designed to fit perfectly in your hand, the Mi 4i (priced at Rs. 12,999) features a 5” 1080p Full HD screen with the all-new Sunlight Display.
A slim high-capacity 3120mAh battery powers the ultra-compact high quality phone, which can last for 1.5 days under normal usage. Mi 4i runs on a 2nd-generation Snapdragon 615 Octa-core 64-bit processor designed by Qualcomm India. It is a 4G dual sim, dual standby device, with 13MP camera, two-tone flash, and a 5Mp front camera.
Crafting such an incredible phone has been made possible only by close cooperation with leading suppliers and world-class manufacturing partners. Mi 4i has high quality components from top tier suppliers such as Qualcomm, Sony, Samsung, Sharp, JDI, Corning, and many others. Mi 4i is also Xiaomi’s very first MIUI 6 device based on Android L.
Xiaomi has been growing rapidly in India after entering the market in July 2014. Analyst firm IDC ranked the company as the 5th-largest smartphone vendor in India in Q4 2014.
Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi, says: “Mr. Tata is one of the most well-respected business leaders in the world. An investment by him is an affirmation of the strategy we have undertaken in India so far. This is just the start of an exciting journey, and we are looking forward to bringing more products into India.”
