China's Smartphone Juggernaut Xiaomi Says It Tripled Phone Sales To 61 Million Last Year

REUTERS/Jason LeeXiaomi CEO Lei Jun showing the company's smartphone sales growth earlier in 2014..

Xiaomi is on a tear. 

The Chinese smartphone maker more than tripled its handset sales last year, selling more than 61 million phones, according to CEO Lei Jun. 

It also made more than $12 billion in revenue last year, Lei said on his microblog.

However, it's unclear how much money the company is making as its sales explode. In 2013, it reported profits of only $56 million on sales of about 19 million handsets, according to Reuters.

Xiaomi passed Samsung to become the top smartphone seller in China last year, Gartner reported in December, and is a big reason why Samsung's smartphone sales are slipping.

The company is still privately held, and was reportedly valued at $45 billion when it raised $1 billion in new funds last month. Russian tech investor Yuri Milner recently said he's impressed by how fast Xiaomi got to more than $1 billion in revenue, and believes Xiaomi will become a $100 billion company