Ninebot absorbs Segway, gets funding from Xiaomi

Remember that mystery personal mobility device Xiaomi was talking about? turns out that Xiaomi has become one of the investors to Ninebot Inc, who also just announced a strategic alliance with Segway; with the two companies to produce more innovations in the short-distance transportation industry.

In the press conference held in Beijing at the JW Marriott Hotel, Ninebot revealed that they had raised $80 million in Series A funding from Xiaomi Technology, Sequoia Capitial and Shunwei Foundation among others, and funding is to go into development of products including electric driving, mobile internet and man-machine interaction on top of well, making more Segway type products. Segway President Rod Keller has high hopes for the merger and is quite confident over the future of the company.

Xiaomi is already known to handle everything from air purifiers to CCTVs, so adding a personal mobility device to it’s repertoire of products doesn’t seem too far fetched. But the question is, would be it as ‘cheap’ as they are known to be?