After completing the work inspection of BBPay, Zhang Yida visited five companies including Ola, Zomato, Byju’s, PolicyBazaar, and Delhivery.
These five companies are respectively involved in five fields including transportation, takeaway catering, online education, online medical care, and logistics and express delivery.
The valuations are not particularly high at present, and most of them are still in the valuation range of several hundred million US dollars.
After Ruixiang received US$2.5 billion in Series D financing last year, Lan Lan stepped in and invested a total of US$290 million in these five companies, acquiring shares ranging from 6.67% to 25% of the five companies.
Zhang Yida went to see them. In addition to being concerned about the development of each company, he mainly chatted with them about the cooperation with BBPay.
Several of the founders were also quite sensible and agreed to help BBPay with new promotions and reached a strategic partnership with BBPay.
Zhang Yida is very satisfied with the attitude of the founders and said that Ruixiang Group will continue to support them in the following days. Financing is not a problem, just ask.
At that time, Zhang Yida sent Lanlan to India to invest. In addition to the financial investment that would generate high returns on the cash in Ruixiang's account, it also meant a heavy industrial layout.
Now this move has finally shown its effect. After BBPay acquires several new application scenarios such as taxi hailing and food delivery, the number of users will definitely usher in a rising tide.
…
At the Indian headquarters of OYO Hotel, I met the company’s founder and CEO Ridesh Agarwal, also known as Xiao Li’s Chinese name “Li Taixi”.
Li Taixi was born in November 1993, just over one year older than Zhang Yida, and he was equally curious about Zhang Yida.
When Lan Lan came forward to invest US$100 million in private investment on behalf of Zhang Yida, he expressed great favor and respect for Zhang Yida, and asked Lan Lan to reply to Zhang Yida, saying that he would come to China to visit Zhang Yida.
However, due to busy company affairs, his trip to China has never started.
"Hello Mr. Agarwal."
Zhang Yida looked at the "youngest self-made entrepreneur in India" in front of him, who had slightly bulging eyes, darker skin color, and slightly curly hair. He shook hands with him and started chatting enthusiastically.
"Hello, Mr. Zhang, you can call me by my Chinese name "Li Taixi", or Xiao Li."
Lee Tae Hee gives people a very gentle feeling, and the distance between them is shortened by just a few words.
However, Zhang Yida is not surprised at all. For a young entrepreneur to achieve such high achievements in a country like India, he must have two skills.
Whether it's approachable or talkative, these are all skills that give entrepreneurs extra points.
Li Taixi complimented again: "I have also heard of your entrepreneurial story in India. You started your business at the age of 18 and created the super unicorn "Ruixiang Financial Technology Group".
I heard that you haven't dropped out of school yet, and you are much better at balancing study and starting a business than I am."
"Haha." Zhang Yida said with a smile, "Our school is more tolerant to me, otherwise I would have dropped out of school long ago."
"The universities in China are just good and much more open-minded than ours in India."
Zhang Yida heard a hint of complaint in his words and asked, "I heard that the US$100,000 you spent to start your business came from the Thiel Scholarship?"
“Yes, in 2012, I was invited by Mr. Peter Thiel to go to Silicon Valley, where I received a seed round investment of US$100,000. Then I returned to China, dropped out of school, and started my own business.
I started my business a year earlier than you. I established Oravel Stays in 2012. At that time, I wanted to replicate the "Airbnb" model in India.
But later, the co-founder left, and the company almost collapsed.
In desperation, I had to transition to online and try to integrate budget hotels, and then the OYO chain of hotels came into being."
Zhang Yida listened carefully to his entrepreneurial story. He had also heard of Peter Thiel. He was the partner of Iron Man Musk, the co-founder of PayPal, and a well-known billionaire in Silicon Valley. In 2004, he invested US$500,000 in exchange for
10.2% stake in Facebook…
He is a successful entrepreneur and investor.
The Thiel Scholarship he founded selects 20 to 25 young people under the age of 20 from around the world every year, invites them to Silicon Valley, and provides connections and resources to help these young people start their own businesses.
Each member can receive a scholarship of US$100,000, provided that you drop out of school for two years.
The New York Times once described the Thiel Scholarship as "one of the most unusual experiments in higher education today."
The Thiel Scholarship has been criticized for encouraging young people to drop out of school and start businesses.
Former Harvard University President Larry Summers called it "the most inappropriate philanthropy of the decade."
The Thiel Scholarship is also difficult to obtain. You first need to fill out a 7-8 page application, stating your entrepreneurial ideas and plans, including one thing that no one else believes but you firmly believe in.
Entrepreneurs and investors in related fields will then review your application in turn, followed by several rounds of phone or video interviews. Those who pass will become the final candidates and come to San Francisco to spend a weekend with other candidates and mentors for final screening.
The first recipient of the Thiel Scholarship in China is a girl named Chen Xinyi. She was born in Beijing and went to the United States to study after graduating from junior high school and was admitted to Princeton University.
This girl dropped out of school at the age of 19 and founded the intelligent robot company Helios, but unfortunately the project failed in the end. She returned to China and worked at the computer vision company Green Shen Tong.
At present, no one in mainland China has received this scholarship. Zhang Yida originally had a chance, but he rose too quickly and missed it.
"I heard that your father has his own company. Did you ask him for help when you started your business?"
Zhang Yida knew that Li Taixi was born in "Marwar" in India. The people there are just like Wenzhou in China, with entrepreneurial blood flowing in their bodies.
Li Taixi smiled and said: "My father's company is very small, and investing 100,000 US dollars in me is something that will break his muscles and bones.
Mr. Zhang, I heard that your father is your angel investor?"
Looking at Li Taixi's playful smile, Zhang Yida said frankly: "Yes, that's right, my father invested 1 million yuan in me when I started my business, which was about US$150,000 at the time.
Strictly speaking, I am not a self-made entrepreneur."
Li Taixi waved his hands repeatedly and said, "Mr. Zhang, don't get me wrong. Although you are not a self-made entrepreneur, it does not affect my admiration for you at all.
If you have this kind of resource at home, why not use it?
Entrepreneurship is a process of integrating one's own resources and making them more effective.
On the contrary, I admire your decisiveness. I have learned about your mobile Internet entrepreneurship in China.
If you were struggling to start from scratch, you missed the golden age of mobile Internet entrepreneurship.
Maybe companies like Leech Financial Services and WeChat Pay have fully grown up a long time ago, and they won’t be as brilliant as Ruixiang Group is today.”
Zhang Yida smiled, the flattery was good, I like it.
Li Taixi continued: "My founding of OYO was actually stimulated by the poor accommodation environment of mid- to low-end hotels in India.
The environment of cheap hotels in India at that time was: dirty bathrooms, broken faucets, stained sheets, and even no AC electricity.
In addition, I also found that many travelers do not trust online reviews on travel websites when they travel to other parts of the country and book hotel rooms.
So I judge that the real problem is not letting users find you online, but the lack of predictability and standardization in budget hotels.
Thus, OYO came into being.
We work with budget hotels and completely transform traditional hotel rooms that used to have poor service.
From finding a room, booking, to checking in, we at OYO have established a strict assessment system.
Under the OYO model, small and medium-sized hotel owners with vacant rooms have gained more profits, and consumers have received high-quality, low-price, clean and tidy hotel accommodations.
Therefore, OYO’s success is by no means a fluke, but an inevitable trend for win-win results for all parties.”
Zhang Yida nodded. Every successful entrepreneur has his own uniqueness. Li Taixi also has an insight into the pain points of the budget hotel industry.
OYO solved some minor problems such as "cleanliness and hygiene", and in three years, it created the largest budget hotel chain brand in India.
"What are your next steps? OYO is already a leader in India. Will it bring this model to other countries?" Zhang Yida asked.
"Of course." Li Taixi looked at Zhang Yida respectfully and said, "Maybe I need your help."
"You want to enter China?"
Li Taixi nodded and said: "I want to make the Chinese market the largest market for OYO."
Zhang Yida didn't say anything. He was thinking that in his previous life, OYO entered China within two or three years and became a budget hotel giant with tens of thousands of partner hotels and 500,000 rooms.
Li Taixi is very smart. He adopts the strategy of "surrounding the cities from the countryside", starting from small cities in the second, third and fourth tiers and penetrating little by little.
It is said that he learned this from the great leader... He studied China really thoroughly.
Attract hotel owners to join us for free, and at the same time spend money to decorate and upgrade these hotel owners for free.
At its craziest time, an OYO franchise store was opened in an average of 3 hours.
The main reason why he dares to play this money-burning strategy is that he has embraced Son Zhengyi.
With the support of the oil tycoons in the Middle East, Emperor Sun will be on the rise in two years. Uber, We Work, OYO... specializes in money-burning investments.
The more money is burned, the bigger the market is. I guess this is what Emperor Sun thought.
OYO's crazy expansion has also left many sequelae. Before Zhang Yida was reborn, he heard about OYO's layoffs, performance fraud, and owner siege and other negative news.
This made Zhang Yida hesitate to find a suitable opportunity to sell his shares to SoftBank.
Anyway, Masayoshi Son likes classmate Xiao Li very much, and even praises him as "the Steve Jobs of Asia".
SoftBank Vision Fund has money and can afford the price, so it is the perfect candidate to take over.
"Okay! How do you want me to help you?"
After Zhang Yida made up his mind, he asked Li Taixi.