Chapter 161: Received 1.35 billion US dollars, Orange's Series A financing (Subscription Request)

At around 9 o'clock the next morning, a luxury convoy drove through the east gate of Xuyuan and headed towards Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

There are not many buildings on both sides of the street. Apart from the school and the commercial street opposite, there are large areas of farmland planted with endless winter wheat.

"Shou Zhi, Orange Technology's headquarters is in this place?"

Yuri asked Zhou Shouzhi in English.

He has been to China and met many founders of technology companies. Their office buildings are all located in prosperous electronic ports or software parks.

Orange Technology is the first company to set up its headquarters in the suburbs of third- and fourth-tier cities.

"Boss, China has developed very fast in recent years. Although the surrounding facilities here are a bit poor, there is a university nearby, which can replenish low- and mid-level employees in a timely manner. In addition, the salary that Orange Technology offers to R&D engineers is 20%-30% higher than the market price. In terms of high-end talent reserves, it is not inferior to second-tier top mobile phone manufacturers."

Zhou Shouzhi sat on Yuri's left and introduced him in detail the organizational structure and employee sources of Orange Technology.

When Yuri learned that most of the personnel in Orange Technology's R&D department came from Huawei, ZTE, OPPO, Xiaomi, and even included researchers from Microsoft and Motorola, he immediately put away his contemptuous attitude.

"Orange Technology and Orange Mobile Phone Factory belong to different entities. Judging from Chen Yansen's actions after receiving funding from Lotte and Augusta, I think his business focus is more on manufacturing rather than communication product research and development."

Yuri frowned and secretly cursed Chen Yansen for being too cunning.

The other party separated the R&D and production links, and DST only invested in Orange Technology.

In fact, Yuri is not very interested in the Orange mobile phone factory. The digital product assembly factory has low technical barriers and high investment costs, and the benefits it brings to DST are extremely limited.

"I think this is exactly where the other party is smart. From his move to set up his own factory and supply chain, it is not difficult to see Chen Yansen's huge ambition in the communications industry."

Zhou Shouzhi gave a positive evaluation.

You should know that after the expansion of the Orange mobile phone factory, the number of employees has approached 6,000, with an annual production capacity of up to 30 million smartphones. The equipment cost alone is nearly 2 billion. It is obvious that the mobile phone manufacturing industry is regarded as the core of its future business!

"Shou Zhi, I am not opposed to investing in Orange Technology, but the specific valuation needs to be evaluated by financial and industry analysts before a decision can be made."

Yuri looked at the desolate scenery outside the car window and smiled faintly.

This investment project was fully promoted by Zhou Shouzhi.

At first, the company he recommended for investment was Xiaomi, but in the past three months, Zhou Shouzhi completely ignored Xiaomi and turned his attention to Orange Technology.

Yuri was very curious about what kind of business model Orange Technology used to impress this investment genius who graduated from Harvard Business School.

Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park is less than ten kilometers away from the east gate of Xuyuan. After Yuri and Zhou Shouzhi chatted for a while, they saw the office building area not far away.

On the facade of one of the six-story buildings, there is a striking orange logo.

Yuri knew that they had reached their destination.

Chen Yansen received a reminder call from the front desk and took Gao Weilin, Ye Qiuping and Wang Teng downstairs.

Everyone was dressed very formally today. Wang Teng, who was usually casual, also wore a suit and combed his hair neatly.

When they reached the first floor, the DST convoy had just arrived at the entrance of the park.

Yuri got out of the car, and Zhou Shouzhi followed closely behind him, followed by a dozen entourage members, including financial and legal advisors, and several strong foreign bodyguards.

"Mr. Yuri, Mr. Zhou, welcome to Orange Technology. Please come in."

Chen Yansen walked over with a smile and greeted him in fluent Russian.

Yuri was stunned. He didn't expect that Chen Yansen, a Chinese, could speak Russian so authentically.

Today, unlike thirty years ago, the number of university students who are fluent in Russian is extremely small.

"Mr. Chen, your accent is very standard." Yuri couldn't help but praise.

"Mr. Yuri, thank you for your praise. Should we go to the R&D department first, or the Industrial Design department?"

Chen Yansen asked with a smile.

He learned his pronunciation habits from the original movie soundtracks. In addition to Russian, English and French, he also mastered many other languages ​​such as Spanish and Arabic.

For Chen Yansen, learning a new language is a piece of cake and can be done in a day or two.

"Mr. Chen, if you don't mind, I'd like to go to the design department first." Yuri said in English this time.

After all, most of DST's accompanying staff only speak English, and it is inconvenient for them to communicate in Russian.

"No problem." Chen Yansen nodded and walked to Yuri's right side.

The two walked side by side into the first floor lobby and took the elevator directly to the third floor.

The office area of ​​Building 8 is not large, but the workstations are spacious and not crowded at all.

In terms of per capita office space, Orange Technology is at least three times that of Yidong.

Of course, after getting the financing, Liangzai Dong was planning to buy a piece of land and build a new headquarters building.

"This is the industrial design team, the area in front is the hardware design team, and the office area to the west is the testing team."

Chen Yansen took Yuri and introduced him as they walked.

"I heard that there are many R&D engineers from Motorola and Microsoft here. Mr. Chen, why don't you move the company's headquarters to Shanghai or Beijing? This will be more conducive to your company's recruitment work."

Yuri asked curiously.

"I'm waiting for the best time." Chen Yansen smiled faintly and answered ambiguously.

Yuri pondered for a long time but couldn't guess what he was thinking, so he had to give up.

Chen Yansen paid attention to Yuri's expression, subtle movements and breathing rate, nothing of which escaped his eyes.

With his great insight and reaction speed, when talking with Yuri, he could easily see through the other person's mind and predict his next move.

This is a huge advantage in subsequent negotiations. He is sure that as long as the price is reasonable, the other party will agree.

This was a very obvious advantage in the subsequent negotiations. He was confident that as long as his asking price was not excessive, the other party would agree.

His terrifying insight and reaction speed allowed him to easily grasp Yuri's thoughts and next move during their conversation.

Afterwards, Chen Yansen took Yuri and Zhou Shouzhi on a brief tour of the Aurora System R&D department.

Wang Teng held an Orange mobile phone and demonstrated the theme design, personalized customization function, and core garbage cleaning algorithm of the Aurora OS 1.1 version.

Yuri took the phone, downloaded a game from the Orange App Store, and tried it on the spot.

A dozen years later, a 60Hz screen refresh rate would probably be disliked by users for its lack of smoothness and delayed interactive response, but in 2011, it was still the mainstream configuration.

Yuri didn't feel that the experience was bad. After all, he knew that this phone was only sold for 300 US dollars in China, and he was particularly surprised by its performance.

An hour later, everyone returned to the 5th floor.

Zhou Shouzhi and Gao Weilin completed the docking and took their assistants to check the financial and business data in the outer office area.

Chen Yansen invited Yuri to his office for tea, and he chose Keemun black tea.

Yuri took a sip and said, "It tastes a bit bland. Add some lemon juice and sugar and it will taste better."

Chen Yansen smiled and said that tea has a wide audience and the way of drinking it varies from person to person.

He motioned to Ye Qiuping to get the lemon juice and icing sugar.

Yuri was very curious about Chen Yansen. After sitting down, he had no intention of discussing business at all. Instead, he asked about Chen Yansen's college life and entrepreneurial experience.

Just let Zhou Shouzhi do the document review.

The two of them had the same idea, so they started chatting casually.

During the chat, Yuri mentioned that his youngest daughter was studying for an MBA in Deng Deng Guo, otherwise he would definitely bring her to meet Chen Yansen.

In his opinion, Chen Yansen is 1.86 meters tall, proficient in English and Russian, and has outstanding business talents. He is definitely one of the best among his peers.

His Daria would definitely like this kind of man.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

After hearing this, Chen Yansen smiled and joked, "Then I have to take a look at the photos first."

Yuri laughed. He thought Chen Yansen was a very interesting person who exuded a strong sense of confidence.

He took out his cell phone and showed a photo of his youngest daughter. The girl had a delicate appearance, long golden hair, blue eyes and a tall figure.

Chen Yansen took a look and said nothing.

It's not like he hasn't ridden a foreign horse from the Arctic Country before. Feiyu Technology recruited a lot of pretty girls from the north. They worked hard to sell goods in the live broadcast room during the day and made money for Mr. Chen. At night, they changed into maid outfits and played the game of digging radishes with Mr. Chen.

Afterwards, Chen Yansen took out a brand new, unopened Orange phone and gave it to Yuri.

"Thank you, I like this gift very much." Yuri thanked politely.

Chen Yansen didn't care, it was just a formality.

He planned to ask the brand department to take some photos later and find a few media outlets to create a hot search saying that the DST boss couldn't put down the Orange phone.

After finishing a pot of tea, it was time for dinner.

A group of more than a dozen luxury cars drove towards the sky garden in the city.

After lunch, everyone returned to the Science and Technology Park.

Yuri suggested going to visit Pinbei, and Chen Yansen readily agreed.

The two men walked downstairs and entered Office Building 6, followed by two tall bodyguards.

At this time, Pinbei already has more than 100 employees. The technical department is busy with the development of web and mobile versions of the product, the design department is finalizing the product style, and the investment department is contacting factories in industrial belts across the country to invite them to settle in Pinbei.

When encountering a factory with strong strength and interest, the investment promotion personnel will immediately apply for a business trip and sign the contract in person after an on-site inspection.

"Mr. Chen, does Pinbei need financing?" Yuri took a look around and asked with interest.

In his opinion, Penguin dared to invest $300 million and provide a primary entrance without even seeing the prototype of the product. It would be difficult for him to lose money if he followed suit.

After all, Penguin has done due diligence on the investment, and he followed the investment based on this correct decision, so the probability of making money is naturally high.

"Not for now. I will contact Mr. Yuri when Pinbei starts its Series A financing."

Chen Yansen said with a smile and casually passed it off.

Unless Yuri can help him sell the goods to Europe and the United States, he doesn't want DST to get involved.

The afternoon passed quickly.

Yuri and Zhou Shouzhi left by car and returned to the hotel in the city, where they made a comprehensive assessment based on the collected data and calculated a valuation that satisfied both parties.

Last time, Chen Yansen rejected Zhou Shouzhi’s offer of 36 billion yuan, which shows that his psychological price is much higher than that.

After a heated discussion in the hotel conference room, the finance and data teams reached a consensus based on the price-to-sales ratio valuation model.

Given a high valuation of 46 billion, equivalent to about 7 billion US dollars, it is probably more than three times the valuation of Xiaomi.

Although Zhou Shouzhi thinks this number is reasonable, Xiaomi, with sales of only 700,000 units, is valued at 2 billion US dollars, while Orange Mobile has sales of nearly 5 million units but is only valued at 7 billion.

I'm afraid it won't meet Chen Yansen's expectations!

Of course, valuation cannot be simply calculated by sales volume. Xiaomi’s current low sales volume is simply due to its lack of production capacity.

The price has to be negotiated slowly and cannot be finalized in one go. The DST investment inspection team did not expect to finalize it in one day.

The next day, after Chen Yansen learned of DST's offer, he decisively rejected it.

Yuri discussed with Zhou Shouzhi again, and after some consideration, he raised the offer to 9 billion US dollars.

He also promised to personally help Orange Technology negotiate supply prices with manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Samsung, and Sony, and strive for a 5%-15% purchasing discount.

"Forget Shanxing. Orange's mobile phone screen suppliers are Dongfang and Huaxing."

Chen Yansen waved his hand and said.

In 2011, the quality of Sanxing screens was indeed better than domestic ones, but the sticks were broken, which limited the supply at a critical moment.

Xiaomi often encountered this kind of thing in the first two years of its business, and only later did it decide to change suppliers. Huawei has also been cheated many times.

This is why Dongfang was later favored by mobile phone manufacturers. Huawei, Transsion and OPPO are all its important customers.

The next day, Yuri left the virtual city.

The next stop is Hangzhou and Yanjing to visit Ali and Yidong. After all, both are DST’s key investment projects this year.

The fact that DST invests in two companies in the same field at the same time shows how strong its financial resources are.

Two days later, the news that Orange Technology completed its Series A financing made headlines on portal websites.

At the top of the news is a photo of DST boss Yuri, China partner Zhou Shouzhi and Chen Yansen.

This round of financing raised 1.35 billion U.S. dollars, with a valuation of 9 billion U.S. dollars, making it a leader among domestic second-tier mobile phone manufacturers.

All of a sudden, Wang Xueting's recruitment work became a lot easier. More and more R&D engineers actively applied for the job, and all the staff in the HR department filled their interview schedules every day.

Even Wang Teng, Ye Qiuping and others, as interviewers, have to participate in more than a dozen second-round interviews a day.

Xucheng, a small inland third- or fourth-tier city, has gradually gained some fame in the technology circle.

(End of this chapter)