Chinese smartphone market Xiaomi Corp filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong on Thursday. Although the amount to be raised was not revealed in the exchange filing, it is expected to be atleast $10 billion as per Bloomberg reports, which will value its business at $100 billion.

Xiaomi could possibly be making the biggest debut since Ali Baba in 2014, where it raised $25 million but chose New York for its offering.

The company led by billionaire Lei Jun has faced its ups and downs. However, since 2016, it has been showing promising results. In 2017, its revenue surged by 67.5 percent to $18 billion from the flat 2.4 percent growth in the previous year.

In an open pre-IPO letter, Lei has pledged to transform Xiaomi into more than just a hardware company and cap its hardware profit at 5 percent, giving back the excess to users.

In 2014, when Xiaomi was not well-known, it became China's third largest smartphone maker, just after Apple and Samsung by selling latest smartphone features for half the price. It attracted customers only through online flash sales. It soon raised $1.1 billion from venture capitalists making it the world's most valuable startup.

Today it also operates over 500 brick and mortar retails stores, mainly in India and China.