[UPDATES] Xiaomi raises $1 Billion in fresh round, valued at $45 Billion post funding

A Wall Street Journal report has finally given us first concrete evidences of Xiaomi’s valuation. As per the report, the Chinese smartphone brand is now worth more than a staggering $45 Billion, once it secures a $1 Billion funding round which is currently in its final stages.

This valuation, which is $10 Billion more than the recently doubled valuation of Facebook owned Instagram, has now made Xiaomi one of the most valuable tech startups in the world. The new round is expected to close as early as Monday and is reportedly led by All-Stars Investment, a tech investment fund run by former Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Ji.

However, the talking point in this entire transaction is the valuation post this round. The $45 Billion valuation would mean that Xiaomi will become more valuable than a large number of Asian and World tech startups, including the likes of Uber, which recently received a $600 Million investment from Baidu. The app based taxi service is currently valued at $41 Billion.

Apart from All-Stars Investment, another private-equity firm named Yunfeng Capoital is also participating in the fresh round. Yunfeng capital is reportedly associated with Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. Chairman, Jack Ma.

Xiaomi, which was valued at around $10 Billion post its August 2013 round of funding, has seen a huge surge in its sales since then. The company has specially seen some robust growth in China and India, its strongholds. Moreover, it out-passed Samsung, to become the No.1 smartphone brand in China by sales. In India too, Xiaomi’s flash sales model has proved to be just the right ingredient to take its growth even further.

In most of the flash sales which it conducted in India, its handsets sold out in less than a minute. The sales were such a huge affair that even Flipkart, with whom the Chinese manufacturer has exclusive partnership, crashed repeatedly due to its inability to handle that sudden purge in visitor traffic.

UPDATE 1 :

A fresh report from Reuters says that Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC will also be one of the investors in Xiaomi’s $1 Billion fund raise. The news comes from sources privy to the entire deal.

UPDATE 2 :

Further revealing the names of investors, a fresh update from the Wall Street Journal suggests that Chinese private-equity firm Hopu Investment Management Co. is also a part of the over $1 Billion fund which Xiaomi has raised. The deal is expected to be confirmed today.