Dream Maker: The Hardcore Backing Behind Xiaomi's Environmental Appliances

Cooperation Background

Around 2017, smog pollution in northern China grew increasingly severe, triggering a surge in demand for air purification and fresh air ventilation systems. At the same time, Xiaomi was aggressively expanding its smart home ecosystem and urgently needed a partner in the environmental appliance sector with core technology, mature manufacturing capabilities, and strong innovation capacity.

Meanwhile, Dream Maker, based in Yongkang, Zhejiang, had spent years building up technological barriers in the fresh air system field. In 2014, the company wholly acquired Dream Maker GmbH in Germany, and subsequently integrated German precision manufacturing expertise with the specific needs of the Chinese market. This led to the launch of a wall-mounted clean fresh air system that solved the long‑standing pain point of retrofitting fresh air systems in already‑decorated homes. With its German technological heritage and independent intellectual property rights, Dream Maker quickly gained a solid reputation in the market.

It was precisely this dual strength—technological prowess combined with manufacturing excellence—that drew significant attention from Xiaomi.

Cooperation Process

On September 21, 2017, Dream Maker, a premium brand in the fresh air system industry, held a press conference with Xiaomi in Beijing. At the event, Dream Maker officially signed an investment and cooperation agreement with Xiaomi Technology, Shunwei Capital, and Sanxing Capital.

The strategic cooperation involved an investment of hundreds of millions of yuan. Under the agreement, Xiaomi Technology, through its wholly‑owned subsidiary Tianjin Jinxing Venture Capital Investment Co., Ltd., acquired an 8.0439% equity stake in Dream Maker, officially making Dream Maker a Xiaomi Ecological Chain company.

At the signing ceremony, Liu De, Co‑founder and Vice President of Xiaomi, remarked that the decision to partner with Dream Maker was "not only because of the fresh air industry, but also because of the Dream Maker team, and more importantly, the innovation capability and industrial supporting facilities of Yongkang." This statement fully reflected Xiaomi's high recognition of Dream Maker's technology, team, and manufacturing capabilities.

In 2018, Dream Maker formally joined the Xiaomi ecological chain system, marking the beginning of the substantive phase of cooperation.

On November 28, 2017, as the first major achievement of the partnership, Dream Maker launched its bedroom fresh air system on the Xiaomi Crowdfunding platform within the Xiaomi Youpin app, at a crowdfunding price of RMB 4,999. The product featured a five‑layer tower purification structure tailored to China's air quality, achieving a PM2.5 removal rate of 99.99%, and incorporated global patented technologies such as a negative ion sterilizer. Embodying the Bauhaus design philosophy, the wall‑mounted unit combined aesthetics with practical functionality.

Subsequently, as a contract manufacturer for Xiaomi, Dream Maker produced a wide range of environmental appliances for the brand. Product pages for many of Xiaomi's tower fans, circulating fans, and floor fans on the Mi Mall indicate that product data were provided by the "Dream Maker R&D Laboratory." Multiple products, including the Mi Smart DC Variable Frequency Tower Fan and the Mi Smart DC Variable Frequency Circulating Fan, list Dream Maker (Zhejiang) Technology Co., Ltd. as the manufacturer.

Cooperation Outcomes 

The cooperation between Dream Maker and Xiaomi has yielded remarkable results:

On the product front: Dream Maker has manufactured multiple bestselling environmental appliances for Xiaomi. Qu Heng, former General Manager of Xiaomi's Ecological Chain, once noted that DC electric fans were the first category that Xiaomi strategically developed from the manufacturing end. Through the partnership with Dream Maker and by leveraging its strong R&D and production capabilities as well as supply chain advantages, this single product enabled Xiaomi to capture the high-end electric fan category in one fell swoop.

On the technology front: Leveraging its German technological heritage and sustained R&D investment, Dream Maker has provided solid technical support to the Xiaomi ecological chain. The company's products have won prestigious design awards such as the German Red Dot Award.

On the capital front: In 2019, Dream Maker completed a strategic financing round, securing investment from Red Star Macalline. Xiaomi, as a significant shareholder, continues to empower Dream Maker's development.

Customer Pain Points and Solutions

（一）Customer Pain Points

Before and during the cooperation with Xiaomi, the Xiaomi ecological chain served by Dream Maker faced the following core pain points:

1、Supply chain gaps in the environmental appliance category. When Xiaomi was building its smart home ecological chain, environmental appliances (such as fresh air systems, air purifiers, and electric fans) were an important category, but it lacked quality partners with core technology R&D capabilities and mass production capacity.

2、Difficulty balancing product price and quality. Consumers demanded both high‑quality environmental appliances and affordable prices. Traditional high‑end fresh air systems often cost over 10,000 yuan, making it difficult to penetrate the mass market.

3、High technical barriers. Environmental appliances involve multiple core technologies such as air purification, fresh air systems, and intelligent control, with long R&D cycles and substantial investment. This made it challenging for ordinary manufacturers to establish technological advantages in a short time.

4、Stringent requirements for production and quality control. Xiaomi ecological chain products have strict standards for quality, quality assurance, and delivery capabilities, requiring partners to possess large‑scale, standardized manufacturing capacities.

（二）Dream Maker's Solutions

1、Core technology R&D capabilities. Dream Maker possesses a German technological heritage. After wholly acquiring Dream Maker GmbH in Germany in 2014, it introduced German precision manufacturing processes to China. The company has been granted over 100 authorized invention patents and holds global patented technologies such as negative ion sterilizers. Its products achieve a PM2.5 removal rate of up to 99.99%, reaching medical‑grade purification levels.

2、Large‑scale smart manufacturing capabilities. The company's production base is located in Yongkang, Zhejiang, covering an area of 100,000 square meters, with an annual production capacity of over 2.5 million units. With multiple R&D centers established across the country, the company possesses end‑to‑end capabilities from R&D to mass production.

3、Cost control and cost‑performance advantages. Leveraging the supporting facilities of Yongkang's hardware industry cluster and its own large‑scale production capacity, Dream Maker is able to effectively control production costs. Following the cooperation with Xiaomi, the prices of high‑end fresh air products were cut by half from the traditional price of over 10,000 yuan, while the electric fan category has demonstrated exceptional cost‑performance.

4、Comprehensive product line of environmental appliances. The company's product portfolio covers a wide range of categories, including fresh air systems, purifiers, electric fans, dehumidifiers, air‑source heat pumps, and air‑source water heaters, enabling it to meet the full spectrum of Xiaomi's ecological chain needs in the environmental appliance sector.

(三) Service Advantages

1、Deep integration and strategic synergy. Xiaomi Technology holds an 8.0439% equity stake in Dream Maker through its wholly‑owned subsidiary. The two parties are not only in a procurement‑and‑supply partnership, but are also deeply bound at the capital and strategic levels. This equity relationship ensures the long‑term stability of the cooperation.

2、Rapid response and agile delivery. As a Xiaomi Ecological Chain company, Dream Maker is capable of responding swiftly to Xiaomi's product needs. From the signing of the agreement in September 2017 to the launch of the first crowdfunding product in November of the same year, the company demonstrated exceptionally high execution efficiency.

3、Quality assurance and brand endorsement. Dream Maker is a national high‑tech enterprise and a recognized "Specialized and Sophisticated" enterprise in Zhejiang Province. Its products have received the German Red Dot Award. The fact that product data for many items on Xiaomi Mall are provided by the "Dream Maker R&D Laboratory" fully reflects Xiaomi's trust in Dream Maker's technological strength.

4、Continuous innovation and technological empowerment. The company has always been driven by innovation and has participated in drafting multiple national and industry standards. Dream Maker's Constant Oxygen Fresh Air System has also won the German Red Dot Award, continuously injecting technological innovation momentum into the Xiaomi ecological chain.

Starting as a private electrical appliance manufacturer in Yongkang, Dream Maker (Zhejiang) Technology Co., Ltd. acquired core technologies through the acquisition of Dream Maker GmbH in Germany. Leveraging its R&D and manufacturing strengths in fresh air systems and environmental appliances, the company secured a strategic investment of hundreds of millions of yuan from Xiaomi Technology, Shunwei Capital, and Sanxing Capital in 2017, and officially became a Xiaomi Ecological Chain company in 2018. Since the cooperation began, Dream Maker has manufactured multiple bestselling environmental appliances for Xiaomi, continuously empowering the Xiaomi ecological chain in technology R&D, product manufacturing, cost control, and other areas.

As a core manufacturing enterprise in the environmental appliance sector within Xiaomi's ecological chain, Dream Maker leverages the dual advantage of "German technology + Chinese manufacturing" and drives forward with the twin engines of "core technology + mass-scale production capacity." By consistently delivering high‑quality, cost‑effective environmental appliances to Xiaomi and its consumers, Dream Maker fully embodies the cooperative philosophy of the Xiaomi ecosystem: "Walk with the best, win with the driven."