China’s Xiaomi plans to buy $13 million stake in GPS mapping company Careland

Red-hot Chinese startup Xiaomi has long since ventured out from its initially territory of smartphones, getting involved in everything from blood pressure monitors to game controllers – and that’s just in the past few weeks! But according to a Tencent Tech report, the company is also expanding into the world of GPS and mapping via a planned investment in Careland.

Careland recently announced that it will sell 7 million shares of its stock at the price of RMB 12 (US$1.96) per share. Xiaomi plans to purchase all of those shares via two subsidiary companies, for a total investment of RMB 84 million, or about US$13.7 million. One company, Tianjin Jinxing Investment Limited, will buy 4,666,667 shares while the other, Tianjin Shunmi Investment Limited, will buy the remaining 2,333,333 shares.

It’s not hard to see why Xiaomi would want a piece of Careland. The company is one of a small group of companies with a license to do GPS mapping in China, and it posted more than RMB 25 million (US$4 million) in profits and strong growth during the first half of 2014. But whether Xiaomi is simply bolstering its investment portfolio or whether it hopes to integrate Careland’s products into its own software remains unclear.

(Source: Tencent Tech via Techweb)