Chinese investors join $40m round for Misfit Wearables

A string of existing investors are also said to be involved, including Li Ka-Shing-owned Horizons Ventures, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.

The strong Chinese presence - Xiaomi and JD.com are among the domestic leaders in their respective industries - reflects the country's importance to Misfit. Sonny Vu, co-founder and CEO of Misfit, told Techcrunch that the new capital will help the company expand its footprint in China.

"This whole thing with Xiaomi and JD.com was basically done so that we can really amplify our presence in China, and also to accelerate product development," Vu said. "We only have 40 people in San Francisco, so there's only so much we can do every year, and having a partner like Xiaomi who really knows how to scale and get to production quickly, and not just them but the company's they're invested in, that's kind of a big deal for us."

JD.com is a strong distribution partner, with the Misfit Shine currently the best-selling activity tracker on the site. Xiaomi already has its own range of wearable devices, but at much lower price points to Misfit products.

Hans Tung, a partner at GGV, and Tuck Lye Koh, a founding partner at Shunwei, will join the Misfit board, the latter in an observer capacity. Both have longstanding ties to Xiaomi. Tung was one of the first investors in the company in his previous role at Qiming Venture Partners, while Koh set up Shunwei with Lei Jun, a noted angel investor and co-founder of Xiaomi.

Founded in 2011, Misfit produces a range of wearable devices. It is best known for the Misfit Shine, which can be worn as a pendant or wrist band and tracks the physical activity. The company claims to have a presence in more than 21,000 retail locations in 50 countries.

Misfit has received $63 million in venture capital funding. Investors in the seed and Series A rounds were not disclosed, but Founders Fund, Khosla and Norwest are all understood to have participated. The $15.2 million Series B round in December 2013 was led by Horizons Ventures.

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• Topics
• Venture
• Technology
• Consumer
• Greater China
• North America
• Venture
• China
• USA
• TMT
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• GGV Capital
• Shunwei Capital Partners
• Xiaomi