China’s Ninebot raises $80m, acquires Segway
Ninebot, a China-based electric scooter manufacturer, has bought its US-based rival Segway for an undisclosed sum and raised $80 million in Series A funding.
The investment, from Chinese smart phone maker Xiaomi, Sequoia Capital, Shunwei Capital Partners and WestSummit Capital, will help finance the acquisition. Ninebot and Segway will operate as separate brands although Ninebot's purchase includes all of Segway's assets, including more than 400 patents, according to a statement.
In September last year Segway named Ninebot in a patent infringement complaint to the US International Trade Commission.
Beijing-headquartered Ninebot started out a crowdfunded project in 2012. It manufactures two-wheeled electric scooters by combining internet and unmanned aerial vehicle technology. It has launched the Windrunner, Ninebot No.9 and Ninebot One series.
Segway was founded in 2001 by Dean Kamen. The firm now has more than 250 distributors around the world.
Lufeng Gao, founder and CEO of Ninebot, said the combined company will apply a series of technologies, such as electric driving, mobile internet and human-computer interaction on future products. "We are confident that this combination will help promote the development of short-distance transportation as well as the growth in the mobile robotics platform industry," he said in a seperate statement.
This marks the latest in a series of hardware and internet of things (IoT) investments by Xiaomi, which previously backed Misfit, Xiaoyi Camera and iHealth Labs. The smart phone maker raised a $1.1 billion round last December to become the most valuable tech start-up globally.
Xiaomi's founder, Chinese super angel investor Lei Jun, is also co-founder of Shunwei. The firm closed its second fund at $525 million last year.
A few months ago, Ninebot's industry peer Inmotion Technologies raised $16 million in a Series B round from Chinese GP Tiantu Capital.
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