Xiaomi and others invested $ 40 million in fitness startup Misfit
The manufacturer of wearable electronics and fitness software Misfit recently announced that it considers Asia, and China in particular, to be its priority market. And almost immediately a reaction followed - Chinese investors became interested in a promising startup. And recently it became known that the company received $ 40 million of investments from Chinese companies and funds, including GGV Capital, Horizons Ventures, Khosla Ventures and the giant of Chinese smartphone manufacturing - Xiaomi.
As Forbes notes, for Xiaomi, whose founder Lei Jun is often compared with Steve Jobs for his personal qualities and manner of behavior, this investment plays an important strategic role, being, in fact, the first investment “sortie” of the vendor in the USA, where various companies already other Chinese giants have invested - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.
Misfit, in the person of such a powerful partner, is gaining the potential to expand its products to the Chinese market, the volumes of which are almost more than in aggregate in 35 countries of the world, where Misfit is already successfully selling its products.
The founder of Misfit, Vietnamese Sonny Wu, began his journey to success thanks to crowdfunding. In 2013, after the project successfully funded its Shine tracker on Indiegogo, the head of Misift secured the support of the authorities of Silicon Valley, Vinod Kosla and Peter Thiel. Before its third round of financing in China, the company managed to collect 23 million investments in the United States, 15 of which were attracted during the second round of financing.
Recall that Misfit has so far released two products - waterproof fitness trackers with LED display Shine and Flash, which differ from each other in the main body material and price.
GigaOm notes that Xiaomi's investment has another interest. Not so long ago, a company known for its inexpensive and high-quality smartphones based on Android, began developing its own fitness tracker Mi Band, and has already managed to sell more than 1 million of these budget bracelets ($ 14). A bracelet from Misfit Flash costs $ 50, which will make it possible to attract both a low-cost audience and a more middle-class money audience when selling both models.
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As Forbes notes, for Xiaomi, whose founder Lei Jun is often compared with Steve Jobs for his personal qualities and manner of behavior, this investment plays an important strategic role, being, in fact, the first investment “sortie” of the vendor in the USA, where various companies already other Chinese giants have invested - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.
Misfit, in the person of such a powerful partner, is gaining the potential to expand its products to the Chinese market, the volumes of which are almost more than in aggregate in 35 countries of the world, where Misfit is already successfully selling its products.
The founder of Misfit, Vietnamese Sonny Wu, began his journey to success thanks to crowdfunding. In 2013, after the project successfully funded its Shine tracker on Indiegogo, the head of Misift secured the support of the authorities of Silicon Valley, Vinod Kosla and Peter Thiel. Before its third round of financing in China, the company managed to collect 23 million investments in the United States, 15 of which were attracted during the second round of financing.
Recall that Misfit has so far released two products - waterproof fitness trackers with LED display Shine and Flash, which differ from each other in the main body material and price.
GigaOm notes that Xiaomi's investment has another interest. Not so long ago, a company known for its inexpensive and high-quality smartphones based on Android, began developing its own fitness tracker Mi Band, and has already managed to sell more than 1 million of these budget bracelets ($ 14). A bracelet from Misfit Flash costs $ 50, which will make it possible to attract both a low-cost audience and a more middle-class money audience when selling both models.
This article is written at the request of: