Chapter 96: Round A financing of 560 million, rejecting Xiao Ma Ge again
January 14, Pullman Hotel Shanghai, top floor banquet hall.
Chen Yansen, along with Wang Zihao, Song Yuncheng, as well as the financial and legal staff, discussed the details for a whole morning. They signed their names and stamped the official seal of Sennheiser Technology only after they had no objection to the contents of the investment agreement, shareholder agreement, equity transfer agreement and employee stock option plan.
20% equity in exchange for 560 million yuan of funds, with a valuation of 2.8 billion yuan! Once the news spreads, the entire e-commerce circle will be shocked.
Chen Yansen shook hands with the three investors one by one and exchanged simple greetings, thinking to himself: "I have barely reached half of my wealth in my last life. My rebirth was not in vain."
"Mr. Chen, congratulations! With this funding, FoxTao will definitely have a qualitative leap in talent recruitment, market promotion and technology upgrades."
Zhang Jiancheng shook Chen Yansen's hand and congratulated him with a smile.
The words also implicitly reminded him that the money had to be used in accordance with the provisions of the investment agreement.
Young entrepreneurs are easily seduced by money and use financing to buy cars and houses, or set up third-party companies and privately use venture capital funds.
"Thank you, Mr. Zhang, for your trust."
Chen Yansen heard the hidden meaning but didn't care.
Having noticed that he was not interested in Rakuten and SIG, we immediately put SIG aside and joined forces with IDG Venture Capital Fund to successfully obtain the A round of financing for FoxTao.
People who act decisively, have no morals, and no bottom line will achieve great success in the future.
"Mr. Chen, can we talk alone?"
Just then, Liu Zhiping came over and interrupted.
Zhang Jiancheng smiled slightly, tactfully left on his own initiative, leaving time for Liu Zhiping.
He is just an investment manager and can put on airs in front of small entrepreneurs, but Liu Zhiping is the real boss.
He can't afford to offend.
"Thank you, Brother Martin. Without Penguin's support, IDG and Siwei wouldn't have been able to offer a high price of 2.8 billion." Chen Yansen said in a low voice.
"The higher the valuation in the A round, the better Mr. Ma's vision is. If you don't have the ability, it will be useless no matter how high the price I ask for. Senzi, you are really amazing."
Liu Zhiping nodded and changed to a more intimate name.
The two walked out of the banquet hall and entered a conference room. Business hotels like Pullman have long taken into account various business needs. On the same floor, in addition to the conference room, there is also a multimedia hall that can accommodate 50 people.
"Pony wants you to take over Paipai.com." Liu Zhiping said straight to the point as soon as he sat down.
"Brother Martin, I've said before that I don't want to work for others." Chen Yansen smiled faintly and refused firmly.
If Ma Wenteng is willing to come to FoxTao, Chen Yansen is willing to reserve a customer service position for him.
As for asking him to work for Xiao Ma, forget it.
"Don't rush to refuse! Before you came, Pony specifically told me that as long as you join Penguin, Paipai.com can operate independently and you will be in charge of all matters. The annual salary will be 30 million, and you will be given options worth 200 million."
Liu Zhiping said with confidence.
With such conditions, even Zhang Xiaolong could be easily impressed, let alone Chen Yansen.
Chen Yansen was stunned. He didn't expect Ma Wenteng to be so determined to do e-commerce. After thinking about it for a while, he understood that WeChat, the T0-level application that Ma Wenteng bet on, had not yet been launched.
Ma Wenteng, who is determined to improve the Penguin ecosystem, will naturally not give up the e-commerce track easily.
200 million options? You have to know that the market value of Penguin in 2011 was far from reaching its peak. If he agreed, he could cash out at a high price ten years later and get at least 8 billion.
This is a huge amount of wealth that Chen Yansen has never seen in his life!
"Brother Martin, I'm sorry, please tell Pony that I'm not interested in PaiPai.com, and I don't want to join Penguin to do e-commerce."
Chen Yansen took a deep breath and still refused.
Liu Zhiping frowned, surprise flashed in his eyes, and shook his head and said, "Don't think that the difference between 200 million options and Fox Tao's 2.8 billion valuation is huge. You should be very clear about the upper limit of the shopping guide model. Even though Zhang Yong and Liu Qiangdong are now acting like they need a shopping guide e-commerce, once the two of them join forces to strangle Fox Tao, how much of the 2.8 billion valuation do you think will be left?"
After hearing this, Chen Yansen smiled and thought to himself: He is a big boss after all, he can see far ahead.
In fact, in his previous life, Ali announced new alliance rules in 2016, and all sales generated by redirects from shopping guide websites would no longer be counted in Taobao’s monthly sales.
Liu Qiangdong is even more ruthless. He bluntly said that shopping guide websites are worthless and are just robberies.
Since then, the development of shopping guide e-commerce has taken a sharp turn for the worse, with companies either switching to self-operation or struggling to survive.
To put it bluntly, these platforms have been making too much money and have relied too much on domestic e-commerce platforms, which is why they have ended up in this situation. If they could have transformed in a timely manner and introduced overseas shopping websites, they would not have been so passive.
Chen Yansen had witnessed the ten-year golden age of e-commerce and had long been on guard against Ma Liyun and Liu Qiangdong.
He had no plan to stick around Fox Tao forever. He would do it for another year or two at most. Then he would find a sucker to take over, cash out and leave.
"I understand the value of these 200 million options, and I am also capable of dealing with changes in domestic e-commerce policies."
Chen Yansen responded confidently.
"You've given me a hard time. Before I left yesterday, I promised Pony that I would definitely get you into Penguin."
Liu Zhiping smiled bitterly and sighed, full of regret.
He understood Chen Yansen's style of doing things. The other party's refusal was not a negotiation tactic to raise his own price, but because he really did not want to join Penguin.
"Penguin is now a major shareholder of FoxTao. This can be considered another form of working for Mr. Ma."
Chen Yansen made a joke to ease the awkward atmosphere.
"With the support of a big company, you can get unimaginable financial and technical resources. Why waste your precious time?" Liu Zhiping couldn't help but asked again.
If it were him, he would definitely join Penguin without hesitation.
"As a man, even if I fail a hundred times, I have to succeed once. I don't want people to say that all my achievements are due to investors, not my personal ability."
Chen Yansen thought about it and repeated what he had said in his previous life.
"Come to Shenzhen when you have time, I'll treat you to tea." Liu Zhiping stood up and made the invitation in a calm tone.
Since we can't reach an agreement, there's no need to waste time.
"Brother Martin, let me take you there." Chen Yansen followed behind and walked him downstairs.
Then he turned and went upstairs.
The three investment institutions and FoxTao also had a small press conference, followed by a dinner. Although Liu Zhiping had left, the process still had to proceed as usual.
At 1:30 p.m., the front page of Penguin News Network was posted with the headline "Fox Tao completes 560 million yuan in financing, with a valuation of up to 2.8 billion yuan."
After seeing the news, FoxTao members cheered on the second floor of the Entrepreneurship Park.
In the office, Tang Qingshan thought for the first time: Letting Huli Tao participate in the college student entrepreneurship competition in March, isn't this bullying? Chen Guobin, who was in Chunshen, stared at the news on his mobile phone, lost in thought, and became numb.
Immediately afterwards, the three major portals and Weibo reported and forwarded the news.
"IDG led the investment, followed by Penguin Capital and Thinking Capital. How big is the potential of shopping guide e-commerce?"
"Within less than half a year of entrepreneurship, the core members are all college students. A 19-year-old business genius created a quasi-unicorn company?"
"The leader of shopping guide e-commerce: Followers flock in, how does FoxTao build a moat?"
Mogujie, which was supposed to be established in February 2011, joined the competition in the shopping guide e-commerce market a month ahead of schedule.
Meilishuo, which was founded in November 2009, also announced on the same day that it would adjust its business, launching an investment promotion plan and a brand sale channel.
For a time, the shopping guide e-commerce model became popular in the industry.
At the dinner, Zhang Jiancheng asked: "Mr. Chen, what do you think of the business changes of Mogujie and Meilishuo?"
"The threshold for shopping guide e-commerce seems to be very low, but in fact it is very high. Not everyone can do it well."
Chen Yansen sneered and commented with disdain.
It's a good thing that some people follow the trend. There are hundreds of millions of Internet users, and this number will increase by 100-200 million every year. Although the cumulative registered users of FoxTao have reached more than 40 million, more than 90% of people are skeptical about the rebate model and have not registered on FoxTao.
The actions of Mogujie and Meilishuo can help FoxTao cultivate the market and educate users. Once these users are familiar with shopping guide e-commerce, they will automatically look for industry leaders.
What Chen Yansen needs to do is to buy traffic on the one hand and grasp merchant resources on the other hand to become the ultimate winner in this industry.
Zhang Jiancheng, Lin Chenfeng from Tencent Venture Capital, and the IDG investment representative felt relieved when they saw how confident he was.
The dinner gradually came to an end at 8:30.
"I will go back to Xucheng tomorrow." Wang Zihao said that although Xucheng College has already had winter vacation, the project team still has to operate.
This group of young people, aged 18 or 19, felt for the first time the difficulties of working people as they no longer had winter and summer vacations.
"What about you?" Chen Yansen looked at Song Yuncheng and asked.
"I have to go back to my hometown and will probably be back in Xucheng in the afternoon of the 16th." Song Yuncheng tightened the collar of his shirt and said in a low voice.
"Lucheng? Have you bought the ticket?" Chen Yansen asked casually.
"I've bought them." Song Yuncheng replied with her head down. In order to prepare the financing materials, she hadn't bothered to buy tickets at all. When she remembered it, it became even harder to buy tickets after the students had their winter vacation.
She plans to try her luck at the long-distance bus station tomorrow.
"Then go back and rest early." Chen Yansen raised his hand to look at his watch, glanced at Song Yuncheng's face, and urged.
Several people stayed at the Pullman Hotel.
Chen Yansen returned to the room, looked at the bright and bustling night scene outside the window, and fell into deep thought.
He still has two years to prepare before 4G and smartphones become widely popular.
What was Lei Jun doing at this time? Preparing for the Mi 1 smartphone?
Where's Zhang Yiming? He's probably still working on Room 99.
Huang Zheng of Pinduoduo is most likely still working at Google.
"I'm not bad! Compared to them, Jun'er is richer than me, but is he as handsome as me?"
Chen Yansen thought happily that when he cashes out in the future, he would also have to say: I was 19 years old that year, and there was only 4 billion cold cash in my card.
(End of this chapter)
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