Xingji Meizu Group, a smartphone maker that was acquired by the founder of Chinese automotive firm Zhejiang Geely Holding in July 2022, has raised a total of 2 billion yuan ($276.1 million) in an extended angel and Series A round.
The Series A funding, which was sealed recently, saw participation from Asia Investment Capital (Shanghai) Management and Harvest Global Investments as lead investors, the firm said in a release via its official WeChat handle on Thursday.
The latest investment comes shortly after its extended angel financing round in the first half of the year. The angel round saw the participation of local investors including Winreal Investment, Xingyuan Fund, and Wuhan Economic Development Zone. The two rounds have brought the firm’s post-money valuation to 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), per the release.
In top-level changes at the firm, Shen Ziyu, the co-founder of Xingji Meizu Group, will serve as CEO while co-founder Su Jing, who previously served as the group’s executive vice president and CFO, will take over as the president.
Xingji Technology, a premium smartphone maker, co-founded by Geely’s chairman and founder Li Shufu, acquired 79.09% of Meizu Technology in July 2022. Wuhan-headquartered Xingji Meizu Group, founded in March 2023, has now evolved into a cross-sector platform that taps into the intersection of consumer electronics and smart electric vehicles, with offices in Shanghai, Beijing, and Zhuhai.
It recently formed a joint venture with Swedish automotive brand Polestar to deepen the latter’s presence in China’s EV market.
The fundraising announcement comes slightly over a week after Geely Holding and Volvo Cars — two key investors of the Swedish auto brand — pumped in more capital into Polestar. Volvo Cars is set to inject $200 million in additional loan capacity, while an affiliate of Geely Holding is pumping an additional $250 million term loan into Polestar, according to a release published by Polestar on November 8.