Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi’s revenues for the financial year 2016 has gone up by about 100 times at Rs 1,046 crore from a mere Rs 11 crore in the year ago period. However, the growth came at a price as the company’s Indian venture slipped into losses of Rs 47 crore from a profit of Rs 1.2 crore in FY 14-15.

Xiaomi entered the highly competitive Indian market in the year 2015 at a time when the market was dominated by South Korean major Samsung. But Xiaomi, with its online-only marketing strategy, was able to pip most incumbents in a very short span breaking the perception that Chinese products were of cheap and poor quality.

During a recent interview with Business Line, Xiaomi CEO and Chairman Lei Jun said that Xiaomi has crossed billion-dollar revenues in India, which means another six fold jump in the fiscal 2017 and is gunning for $2 billion revenue in the coming year.

“We will surpass $2 billion this year. Our India team has promised us 100 per cent growth every year. The possibility of crossing $2 billion is 99%,” Jun told BusinessLine.

Following the move made by WhatsApp, Xiaomi could also start providing financial services in India, Jun had indicated. “But this sector is highly regulated. It requires different licences. If we could obtain such licences, we are more than happy to be part of this financial services innovation in India. We need to understand if there are limitations on foreign entities,” he said.

The Ratan Tata-backed firm said the next wave of transformation will be in the area of artificial intelligence and it would soon launch some products in this area.