Winning the new financial era

Chapter 296 Advanced Unicorn Scooter

The next day.

Green's office in Silicon Valley is full of investors, and there are nearly [-] existing shareholders alone.

The largest shareholder is Zhang Yida himself, and other larger shareholders include Penguin, Heishan Capital, etc., all holding more than 5% of the shares;

Smaller shareholders include Happy Capital, Li Bing, Fu Weiwei and other original Bicycle shareholders, all of which hold less than 1% of the shares.

White, the investment representative of Google Ventures, looked at such a lively scene, and immediately said something humorous, "Guys, this scene doesn't look like a financing meeting, but a party."

"Mr. White, I disagree with you. There are so many shareholders behind Green, which shows that the company is highly sought after by investors."

Shen Beipeng replied in a neutral tone.

"Shen, you have no sense of humor." White spread his hands, "I was just joking, and there is no other meaning."

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, please be quiet."

Green's CEO Howard made a "stop" gesture, and all the investors also fell silent.

Howard asked his assistant to send a company operating statement to all investors, and began to introduce the basic situation of the company:
"Green currently operates a total of 121236 shared electric scooters, covering 25 large and medium-sized cities including San Francisco, New York, and Boston.

There are a total of 342 employees at the headquarters, including more than 2 registered crowdsourcing chargers.

In Kunshan and Tianjin in China, we also set up supply chain and R&D teams..."

After Howard introduced Green's basic profile, Lewis Hamilton, the investment representative sent by Uber, asked: "OK, let's talk about Green's valuation now."

"In terms of valuation, we think Green's pre-money valuation should be $10 billion."

Google's White shook his head after hearing Howard's words, "Mr. Howard, Green only has a total of 12 scooters. Could it be that the cost of a scooter is 8000 US dollars?

As far as I know, this thing can be made in Kunshan or Tianjin, China for less than $400! "

Howard chuckled twice, "Mr. White, you are valuing us as a manufacturing company.

I want to emphasize that Green is a technology company of "smart hardware + IoT + cloud unlocking".

In addition, during the establishment process, Huimin Travel Group injected more than 1 million US dollars into us.

In addition to these, Green's most valuable thing is creativity.We are the world's first shared electric scooter company.

You should have heard of Mr. Zhang Yida in China, who is comparable to a young man in Zuckerberg.

During the establishment of Green, he provided many forward-looking opinions, including the anti-theft structure of scooters, crowdsourcing chargers and so on.

Aren't these worth a billion dollars? "

Uber's Hamilton said: "Mr Howard, what you say is true, and we admit it.

Green is the world's first shared electric scooter company, but it is not without challengers.

Both Lime and Bird have completed product development and are seeking financing.In the near future, I am afraid that there will be no small threat to Green. "

"We are not afraid of any challenge!"

Howard said with a smile: "First of all, we pioneered the concept of shared electric scooters, and we also pioneered the concept of crowdsourcing chargers.

We know this industry better than any other company.

Most importantly, we are almost a year ahead of them. "

"Sir, the temporary lead doesn't mean anything." White shrugged, "Yahoo was so invincible before, it's not because we were defeated by Google;
Also, the Netscape browser used to have such a high market share, but it was not taught by Microsoft to be a man.

When users abandon you, they won't even say goodbye. "

What kind of wolf with a big tail are you pretending to be?Howard secretly thought that he just wanted to lower the price, and turned out all these old things.

"We are not Yahoo, nor Netscape." Howard said plausibly, "We will not give our competitors any chance to come back."

"The cash in Green's account is still sufficient, tens of millions of dollars."

Howard looked at White and Hamilton and said, "Gentlemen, guess why we have to raise money when we have so much money?"

Without waiting for the two to reply, Howard continued: "We have a big move, a big move that requires hundreds of millions of dollars to support.

We want to enter the European market and globalize Green's business. "

"OK, I admit that Green's team is a very good team and works very efficiently."

White added: "But a company that has been established for less than a year has become a unicorn so quickly, which is too sensational and counterintuitive!"

"Sir, some rules are meant to be broken."

Howard laughed: "Will Yahoo think that one day it will be picked up by a company worth a million dollars?"

White laughed. This has almost become a stalk in Silicon Valley. Back then, Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to sell Google's core technology search algorithm to Yahoo for $100 million.

The result was rejected by Yahoo, thinking that he already had a portal search and did not need anything else.And Yahoo thinks that if Google's search is really that good, why don't you use it yourself.

The things were not sold, so the two founders of Google did the search themselves, and then indirectly killed Yahoo.

Except for Yahoo's smart investment in Ahri, other investments are simply terrible.

It’s fine if you miss Google, and the price is lowered, which leads to the failure of the acquisition of Facebook, and you miss the sale to Microsoft at a high price...

These things are no strangers to this group of Silicon Valley investors.

Seeing that Howard has been undervalued by investors from Google and Uber, shareholders like Shen Beipeng can't stand it anymore.

Shen Beipeng said: "Huimin Travel conducted a C round of financing after the spin-off of Green, and its C round investors valued Green at US$10 billion. In the end, Huimin Travel subtracted US$10 billion from the total valuation. "

"Mr. White, Mr. Hamilton, Google and Uber are all trying to make a big difference in the field of travel. How can there be no short-distance travel ally like Green?"

Xu Xiaoming also did some homework. He analyzed the investment motives of Google and Uber, and he explained the truth in one sentence.

Google has Google Maps, has also invested in Uber, and is still working on driverless cars. Obviously, it is interested in the field of travel.

Not to mention Uber, which is engaged in online car-hailing all over the world.China's Didi still wants to make shared bicycles bigger and stronger, let alone Uber.

"Mr. Shen, Mr. Xu, you two also want to participate in Green's A round of financing?" White asked.

"Of course, Green is a company we are very optimistic about. We will definitely not miss this kind of high-quality project."

Shen Beipeng also nodded, kind of echoing Xu Xiaoming's remarks.

For the two of them, they invested in the golden rooster of Huimin Travel, but they did not expect to lay the golden egg of Green.

It feels like no money was spent, and an investment was exchanged for holding shares in two companies.

Huimin Travel spin-off Green, this kind of unicorn hatching unicorn, is relatively rare in the world.

Such small probability events have happened to them, and they feel quite lucky.

And looking at the development trend of Green, there are also very good development prospects. Of course, the two of them will not miss this investment opportunity.

"Penguins also want to participate in the follow-up vote!"

"Softbank also wants to participate in the follow-up investment!"

"GIC will follow suit!"

"We still need Gaoling Capital!"

……

Seeing that Shen and Xu had spoken, other investors followed suit.

Howard also smiled, and said: "Mr. White, Mr. Hamilton, you have also seen that Green has no shortage of investors who are sought after.

We are willing to choose Uber and Google, and we also hope that we can form a strategic partnership with each other. "

"All right!"

Hamilton nodded. "We at Uber agree to this valuation, but on one condition."

"What conditions?" Howard asked.

"We hope that Green can make some technical connections with Uber's application software, so that Uber users can rent Green scooters through our company's application software."

"It's a great proposition, why not?
Howard stood up and shook hands with Hamilton with a smile on his face.

"Hopefully this valuation doesn't make us Google a joke in Silicon Valley."

Howard replied with a smile: "Looking back in a few years, this must be another brilliant stroke in your investment career, Mr. White."

"I hope so!"

Google and Uber, which led the investment, agreed to a valuation of US$10 billion, and the original shareholders had no opinion.

Soon, $2.5 million in Series A financing was finalized, with Google and Uber each leading $1 million.

It is not easy to divide the follow-up investment share of 5000 million US dollars. Zhenke Fund, Blackshirt Capital, Softbank, Penguin, GIC, Silver Lake Capital, Warburg Pincus and many other investment institutions want to take more shares.

After arguing for a long time, more than a dozen investment institutions finally divided the share of 5000 million US dollars equally.

"By the way, there is one more question."

White said suddenly.

All the investors who attended turned their attention, and White continued: "I have seen the current share composition, and if the dilution of the A round of financing is not counted, the option pool is only 4%.

Such a small share is not enough to motivate the management team. "

Howard immediately took a new look at White, who was "tricky and mean" just now, the boss is so majestic!
Seeing that the original shareholders of Green didn't speak, White knew that this was diluting their shares, and it would be uncomfortable to change anyone.

White doesn't care so much. It is also beneficial to Google to reset the option pool before financing, avoiding the dilution of shares.

White continued: "It stands to reason that the company's option pool should not be so small.

The main reason is that Green is under the control of Huimin Travel, which leads to the dilution of the option pool.

Green is just a start-up company that has been established for less than a year, and the A round of financing has not yet been completed. Only 4% of the option pool is not enough to motivate the management and recruit talents. "

The shareholders who came over from Huimin Travel did not speak. They were also thinking about this "historical legacy". The 4% option pool is indeed a little too small.

"The option pool of start-up companies generally reserves 10%-20%, considering that Green is already a unicorn, the minimum value of 10% can be selected as appropriate.

I suggest that the original shareholders of Huimin travel to replenish the option pool to 10%.

Then proceed to Series A financing! "

Hamilton echoed: "Mr. White is right. We need to set up the option pool first, so that our two investors are suitable to enter."

"How about setting up an option pool after completing the A round of financing?"

Xu Xiaoming began to act stupidly, "The A round of financing has been negotiated today, let's get down to business first!"

(End of this chapter)