Chapter 51 Planning to establish a venture capital fund
After listening to Zhang Yida's heartfelt words, all the senior executives of Ruixiang Jinke were a little moved.
Lei Dongming, in particular, has many years of experience in financial management. He has had in-depth contact with major venture capital, VC and PE. Knowing the investment logic of these people, it is extremely common to use the small to make the big.
If Zhang Yida's ideas are truly implemented, there is still great hope for success.
Lei Dongming was the first to stand up and asked with a look of expectation: "Mr. Zhang, what do you need me to do in this process? Assign me a task! Fighting against a giant makes your blood boil just thinking about it. No matter whether you win or not.
Failure, as long as our reputation is established, we will definitely have a place in domestic Internet finance in the future."
Others also spoke one after another, and each came forward to invite the battle.
Morale can be put to good use! Zhang Yida signaled everyone to be quiet and listen to his arrangements.
After sorting out his thoughts, he said: "In the next few months, everyone will have to work hard. Everyone will polish the product, and the business will be the greatest support and contribution to the company. The financing matters will be handled by Mr. Lei and I.
Enter."
He glanced at Lin Zhenyang again, smiled and said: "The daily management of the company requires you to worry more."
Lin Zhenyang nodded and said: "Don't worry about this. You are fighting on the front line, and we will leave the rest to us."
Next, some personnel orders and job assignments were read out.
Zhang Yida continues to serve as chairman of Ruixiang Jinke and concurrently as group CEO, responsible for the company's overall strategic planning and capital operations.
Lin Zhenyang serves as the group's president and COO, responsible for the company's daily operations and management.
Lei Dongming served as the group's CFO and was promoted to senior vice president, responsible for the company's financial management, investment and mergers and acquisitions and other matters.
Zhou Feng serves as the group's CTO and vice president, responsible for the research and development management of technology line products.
The seven subsidiaries including Touronghui, 365 Accounting Manager, Kawang Credit Card Manager, Touronghui Finance, Mobao Payment, Mung Bean Credit, and Tiance Technology have also made a series of personnel adjustments.
Touronghui and Touronghui Finance are divided into content advertising business groups, with Gu Panpan serving as the general manager of the business group and concurrently as the vice president of the group.
365 Accounting Manager and Kawang Credit Card Manager are divided into mobile service business groups. Wang Lina serves as the general manager of the business group and concurrently serves as the group vice president.
Mobao Payment, Mung Bean Credit, and Tiance Technology are divided into emerging technology business groups. The general manager of the business group is temporarily held by Zhang Yida, and will be appointed separately when suitable candidates are recruited.
Although Xu Xiaoqing, Anping, and Wang Feiyan were not among the first batch of entrepreneurial veterans and were not appointed as general managers of the business group, they were all promoted to vice presidents and their salaries were raised by one level.
Zhang Yida and Lin Zhenyang were somewhat selfish in this matter. Although the performance of several entrepreneurial veterans was similar, they gave priority to promotions to Gu Panpan and Wang Lina.
Of course, although this is a bit different, it is only slightly tilted towards the old employees. After all, everyone performs similarly. If Xu Xiaoqing and the other three perform much better, Zhang Yida and Lin Zhenyang will definitely choose them.
Three.
After the personnel orders were read out, everyone had mixed reactions, but basically everyone looked happy.
Although Xu Xiaoqing and Xu Xiaoqing were a little disappointed, they were generally quite satisfied. They were all promoted to vice presidents of the group, which is considered a high-level position in the company, but they did not obtain the position of general manager of the business unit, which has great power and development potential.
After the meeting, Zhang Yida retained Lei Dongming and Lin Zhenyang.
Zhang Yida lit a cigarette and handed one to Lei Dongming and Lin Zhenyang. He took a long puff of the cigarette, spit it out, and asked:
"Lao Lei, do you have any suitable candidates to recommend for the position of general manager of the emerging technology business group?"
Lei Dongming blew out a smoke ring, scratched his head, and sighed after a long time:
"I really don't have any good candidates to recommend. This seat is not easy to sit in. If you sit in it, you will have to go to war with giants like Leech Financial Services. It will be a tough battle!"
Zhang Yida also knew that this position was not easy to sit in, so he did not dare to decide on a candidate easily.
Zhang Yida took a deep breath of cigarette and said:
"This position is so important that I can only take it for the time being."
"Should we entrust a headhunter to look for him?" Lin Zhenyang interjected.
"Okay! The headhunter asked them to recommend a few candidates to come and take a look." Zhang Yida flicked the ashes of his cigarette and said. Then he remembered that Mung Bean Credit and Tiance Technology still lacked the person in charge, and added:
"Let's set a group purchase package price with the headhunter! People from Mung Bean and Tiance have also been recruited. Find Heidrick and Struggles or Korn Ferry International. Ask them to go to e-commerce and recruit some middle-level Chinese people for me. It's best.
Experts in personal credit reporting and risk control systems.”
There are indeed many talented people in e. Chen Shaojie is an example. Now he is managing Yimindai very well.
After the three people discussed the matter, Lei Dongming suddenly thought of something and said:
"Mr. Zhang, I almost forgot to tell you. Some time ago you asked me to inquire about Toutiao, Didi, and Meituan's financing. There is specific news."
When Zhang Yida heard this, he hurriedly came to Lei Dongming and said excitedly:
"Great, what did they say?"
Lei Dongming was a little surprised when he saw Zhang Yida's reaction, and slowly told the news:
"Meituan.com is currently valued at around US$3 billion and is seeking a Series C financing of around US$300 million. Various venture capitals are interested, so we probably won't be able to get involved.
There are two reasons. The first is that the valuation is too high. If we want to participate, we have to spend at least tens of millions of dollars as follow-up investment;
The second is that giants such as Ali and international investment banks are currently competing for financing. We can neither provide domestic traffic resources, nor can we, as an established venture capital firm, help invested companies with capital operations and listings.
So, to sum up, we can’t get into the situation.”
Zhang Yida felt a bit regretful. The market value of Meituan in later generations reached a maximum of 70 billion US dollars. Seeing an investment project with a high return of 35 times but unable to participate in it, he felt a little sad.
Seeing Zhang Yida's expression of regret, Lei Dongming was also helpless. He was also very optimistic about Meituan! However, he had no money or resources to invest in it!
If you have a lot of money, you can still invest it if you have US$4 billion or US$5 billion to value Meituan. The question is, how can you have so much money? If you have so much money, don’t you know how to develop your own business?
Lei Dongming continued:
"Didi only completed a US$100 million Series C round of financing in January this year, so we were a little late. But if we hadn't been late, we probably wouldn't be able to compete with Penguin and CITIC.
Didi is now having a lively fight with Kuaidi, and the battle for money-burning subsidies continues, and they are very short of money.
We can now participate in a C+ round with a valuation of more than one billion US dollars, but we would have to spend at least tens of millions of US dollars, and we don’t have that kind of money now.”
Zhang Yida remained silent. The highest valuation of Didi in later generations once reached US$60 billion. However, with the listing of similar American companies Uber and Lyft, as well as several security incidents that occurred in Didi, the valuation is said to have dropped to US$40 billion.
.
It’s another big fat sheep with thirty or forty times the return, but it looks like it’s too much to eat.
Seeing that Zhang Yida looked a little ugly, Lei Dongming quickly continued with the headlines and said:
“There is good news here in Toutiao. They only completed US$10 million in Series B financing in September last year, with a valuation of US$100 million.
We are currently seeking US$100 million in Series C financing, with a valuation of around US$1 billion, which is similar to our current size.
I asked someone to pass a message to Zhang Ming and asked, and he said he could talk to us."
Zhang Yida touched his chin. At this time, Toutiao followed Xiang's valuation.
Ruixiang has been developing very well recently. Investment banks have come to approach it for Series B financing, and its valuation has risen to US$1 billion.
"If you have the chance, you must participate. The other two chances are slim," Zhang Yida said with emotion.
"Okay, since everyone is in the capital, let's make an appointment with Zhang Ming and let's visit him at his door."
Lei Dongming frowned and then said:
"Mr. Zhang, although Toutiao is developing rapidly, it seems to have great potential and is a good investment target.
But after all, our main business now is finance, and the company is still in the process of entrepreneurship and development, which is when we need money.
At this time, if we use company money not to accelerate our own development, but to focus on investment, will investors have any objections? Will they think that we are not doing our job properly? "
Zhang Yida pursed his lips. The last time he took nearly 100 million to invest in Lefenqi, the investors were very dissatisfied. He thought that Ruixiang did not focus on its own development and went to invest in start-ups without doing its job.
At that time, Ruixiang had abundant funds, so the investors only gave a few reminders without any strong objections.
But investing in Toutiao now, for Ruixiang, is neither a strategic investment to supplement the upstream and downstream industrial chains, nor a small early-stage investment in start-ups.
Investors will definitely object.
When he thought of this, Zhang Yida became a little discouraged.
Upon seeing this, Lei Dongming made another suggestion:
"Mr. Zhang, how about this? We set up a venture capital fund outside of Ruixiang. After raising all the funds, we can invest in whatever projects we want, and there won't be a supreme emperor looking after us."
Lei Dongming's words suddenly opened up Zhang Yida's thinking.
Yes, I can start a new business on my own! I can also entrust Yimin Wealth to handle part of the fund-raising, and then I can shamelessly go to all the alumni and old seniors, and I should still be able to raise a lot of funds.
Zhang Yida slapped the table and said: "Okay, you reminded me, let's just do it, we will set up a fund ourselves."
Lei Dongming chuckled and then said:
"For funding, I can look to my old employers and some fund of funds. There is still hope for raising tens of millions of dollars."
Zhang Yida nodded, remembering that this CFO also worked in investment banks and listed companies, and had a wide network of contacts.
Zhang Yida thought for a while and said:
"I also own Yimin Wealth, which focuses on serving high-net-worth users, which can raise some funds for us. There are also many entrepreneurs in the Peking University alumni circle, so you can try to raise funds from them."
Lei Dongming nodded slightly and said it was feasible. After thinking for a moment, he said:
“Then what is the size of the first phase of our fund’s fundraising?”
Zhang Yida thought for a while, and if he set a high goal, he would be afraid that he would not be able to raise enough money in a short time, and if the opportunity was missed, he would not come back again. He had to be fast, raise enough funds in the shortest time and then invest it.
So he replied: "Let's tentatively decide on US$100 million! The more, the better."
Then, under Zhang Yida's arrangement, Lei Dongming began to be busy preparing for the registration of the venture capital fund.