Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, a community where you’ll learn how to angel invest and get a chance to invest as little as $1k into Hustle Fund's top performing early-stage startups

Lei Jun was born in 1969 in Xiantao, Hubei, to a family of teachers. His father earned $7 a month. As a child he was fascinated by electronics and disassembled radios. He graduated from Wuhan University's computer science department in 1991. He joined Kingsoft, a Chinese software company, in 1992 as a junior engineer and became CEO in 1998. Under his leadership, Kingsoft went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007.

He stepped down as CEO after the IPO to focus on angel investing. He founded Joyo.com, an online retail platform, in 2000 and sold it to Amazon for $75 million in 2004. In 2005, he invested $1 million in YY, a social media platform. When YY went public on NASDAQ in 2012, his investment was worth $129 million.

Shunwei Capital

Lei Jun investments are institutionalized through Shunwei Capital, which he co-founded in 2011. The fund focuses on early- to growth-stage companies in fintech, e-commerce, healthcare technology, and AI. Shunwei manages billions in assets and has backed hundreds of Chinese technology companies across multiple generations of the domestic startup ecosystem.

His angel portfolio before Shunwei included UCWeb, the mobile browser company, where he became chairman in 2008. UCWeb was acquired by Alibaba for $3.8 billion in 2014.

Xiaomi and the EV Bet

He co-founded Xiaomi in April 2010 with multiple partners including former Google executive Lin Bin. The original thesis was a smartphone company that sold premium-quality hardware at near cost and made money on internet services, software, and accessories. The first Xiaomi smartphone launched in 2011.

The model worked. By 2014, Xiaomi was the most valuable startup in the world at a $46 billion valuation. Growth slowed in 2016 and 2017 as the Chinese market became more competitive, but recovered. The company went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July 2018, raising $4.7 billion.

In March 2021, Lei Jun announced Xiaomi's entry into electric vehicles, committing to invest $10 billion USD over the next decade. He took personal charge of the project. In March 2024, Xiaomi launched the SU7, a premium EV competing with Tesla's Model 3. Pre-orders exceeded 100,000 units. By the end of 2024, Xiaomi had delivered 136,000 EVs. The 2025 delivery target was set at 350,000. Revenue grew 35% in 2024 to approximately $55 billion. Xiaomi spent 24.1 billion yuan on R&D in 2024, primarily for EVs.

Eric Bahn of Hustle Fund has observed that the most ambitious founder pivots are those where the founder applies existing manufacturing and distribution advantages to a new category rather than starting from scratch. Xiaomi's EV entry leveraged its supply chain relationships, retail network, and brand recognition in China rather than requiring a greenfield build. Angel Squad members evaluating hardware companies learn to assess that kind of strategic leverage.

As of late 2025, Xiaomi holds a 14% global smartphone market share, ranking third behind Apple and Samsung. The stock has risen more than 280% over the prior twelve months on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Lei Jun's net worth, tied primarily to his Xiaomi stake, has grown to approximately $35-43 billion depending on the source.

The SU7 and the EV Strategy

The Xiaomi SU7 launch in March 2024 was one of the most closely watched product debuts in Chinese consumer tech. Lei Jun personally hosted the launch event and positioned the car explicitly as competing with the Porsche Taycan and Tesla Model 3 on performance metrics while undercutting on price. Pre-orders exceeded 100,000 units within hours. The waitlist stretched months.

Lei Jun has said he spent ten times the industry average to build the first SU7 prototype because he refused to compromise on quality. That decision came from watching Apple: he saw what happened when a company with premium brand equity entered a category and refused to cut corners. He built the EV division to the same standard.

The YU7 electric SUV is expected to launch in summer 2025, competing with Tesla's Model Y. Xiaomi has committed to spending $4.2 billion on R&D in 2025, primarily for EVs. The EV bet has also benefited the smartphone business by enhancing Xiaomi's brand perception in China.

Shiyan Koh of Hustle Fund has noted that Lei Jun's career is a master class in compounding operational expertise across multiple companies. He built Kingsoft, sold Joyo to Amazon, backed YY and UCWeb, and then built Xiaomi. Each phase informed the next. That kind of compounding founder knowledge is exactly what Angel Squad members learn to identify early. See the community at hustlefund.vc/squad.