China’s Xiaomi commits $14m to GPS firm Careland

According to statement, Xiaomi has subscribed to 7 million shares in Careland, at RMB12 apiece, via two wholly-owned vehicles: Tianjin Jinxing Investment and Tianjin Shunmi Investment. The former will purchase 4.7 million shares, while the latter will buy the remaining 2.3 million shares.

Set up in 1999, Careland provides GPS mapping and navigation software to smart phone manufacturers and car makers. The company is one of a small group of businesses in China with a license to do GPS mapping. Careland said the funding would be used to help further the development of its GPS technology and expand the its mobile internet business.

Xiaomi was founded by superangel investor Lei Jun and has a string of VC backers including Morningside Technologies and Qiming Venture Partners.

Last month, Xiaomi paid $25 million for a 20% stake in iHealth to develop mobile health technology solutions in areas such as e-commerce and cloud computing. Earlier this year, Xiaomi invested inWesthouse Group, a game developer controlled by Kingsoft Corporation, and Xunlei, a Chinese file-sharing service provider that went public in the US in June.

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• Topics
• Greater China
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• Early-stage
• China
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• Xiaomi
• TMT