(Yicai Global) April 20 -- Kingsoft Cloud Holdings, a cloud technology service firm handset maker Xiaomi's founder Lei Jun has set up, has submitted a listing application to the US Nasdaq market, aiming to raise up to USD100 million to upgrade and expand its fundamental business infrastructure, develop new products and technologies and improve its ecosystem.

J.P. Morgan, UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse and China International Capital Corp. are the initial public offering's underwriters.

The public cloud, enterprise cloud and Artificial Intelligence of Things cloud service systems make up most of Kingsoft Cloud's product businesses, with public cloud serving internet firms contributing about 90 percent of its revenue.

The Beijing-based company ranked sixth by market share in China's public cloud market, lagging behind market leaders like Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Amazon Web Services, according to International Data Corporation's China Public Cloud Service Market Historical Tracker 1H 2019.

Kingsoft Cloud has been in the red since its inception eight years ago. The company has posted ever-expanding net losses over the past three years , which have now ballooned to CNY2.8 billion, despite a large gain in operating revenue over the same period, per its prospectus.

Lei Jun, Kingsoft Cloud's president, who directedly owns 15.8 percent shares, is the largest individual shareholder in the runup to the IPO. Kingsoft Cloud is a spin-off of Hong Kong-listed Kingsoft, the largest institutional shareholder with about 54 percent of equity. Xiaomi and Future Entities respectively hold 15.8 percent and 5.7 percent, the prospectus shows.

Lei is a famous internet entrepreneur in China, with the Xiaomi cellphone brand he founded ranking fourth by worldwide mobile phone sales behind Samsung, Apple and Huawei Technologies. He actually controls three listed firms, Kingsoft that went public in 2007, Xiaomi which listed in 2018 and Kingsoft Office, which staged its IPO last year.

Editor: Ben Armour