Xiaomi has made its first investment in India, leading a $25-million (Rs 170 crore) funding round into Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, an aggregator and publisher of entertainment content on the internet. Xiaomi, which will invest along with Hungama’s existing investors Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, will pick up a minority, but undisclosed, stake in the Mumbai-based company.

• The investment marks Xiaomi’s first investment into a start-up outside its home market of China, and underlines the importance of the fast growing Indian smartphone market, which is well on its way to become a leading base of internet consumers, from the present base of around 400 million users.
• Xiaomi will integrate Hungama’s video on demand service with the Mi platform available on smartphones and televisions, the latter not yet available in India.
• China’s largest smartphone maker is replicating its home model in India, where it has launched two of its leading smartphones in 2016, including the latest flagship Mi 5 last week.
• In China, Xiaomi has invested in 55 companies which form part of the Mi Ecosystem.
• Of these, 29 have been incubated but only 20 lave launched products. About 7 companies of this subset have clocked sales of RMB 100 million and two – which make power banks and fitness bands – have surpassed the RMB 1 billion sales mark.

Xiaomi aims to have a similar ecosystem here and feels that video on demand is one of the fastest growing services which will become a key driver for users to get on to the internet.