Xiaomi Corp., whose investors include billionaire Yuri Milner, more than doubled its sales revenue last year, according to a blog posting by Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun.

The Beijing-based company’s revenue before tax rose to 74.3 billion yuan ($12 billion) in 2014, Lei said on his microblog today. It sold 61.1 million mobile phones, 227 percent more than in the previous year. Xiaomi plans to release a Redmi smartphone and will hold a press conference on Jan. 15 to issue an “important flagship” product, according to the post.

China’s largest smartphone vendor said on Dec. 29 its valuation has risen to $45 billion following a $1.1 billion funding round that included investors such asMilner’s DST, Singapore’s GIC Pte and All-Stars Investment Ltd. The company is now the highest-valued IT firm yet to go public, Lei said.

Xiaomi, which means “millet” in Chinese, was founded in 2010 to make software for mobile devices running Google Inc.’s Android system. The company subsequently released products including a tablet computer, a television set-top box and TVs that connect to the Web.

Xiaomi has the same potential as Facebook Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to reach a valuation of $100 billion, Milner, an early investor in all three, said last month.

(Bloomberg)