Winning the new financial era

Chapter 55 Huayi Capital
Zhang Yida and Lei Dongming drove to AVIC Building in Haiding District today.

As soon as he went upstairs, he saw Zhang Ming who had been waiting at the front desk for a long time.

Zhang Ming is about 30 years old, wearing a black sweater and gold-rimmed glasses. He is not tall.

Zhang Yida and Lei Dongming stepped forward to greet Zhang Ming and shook hands.

Zhang Ming didn't talk much, so he led the two of them into the company.

After Zhang Yida joined Toutiao, he looked around and saw that the office area was quite large, covering over a thousand square meters. There were more than 100 programmers sitting in the open office area, all working hard.

In addition, the decoration of the office is also very simple. There are no fancy things, just painted the walls, placed tables and chairs, and some green plants and potted plants.

Zhang Yida's first impression of this company is "pragmatic, not exaggerated."

Zhang Ming took the two of them to his office, sat on the sofa, and ordered the administrator to serve two cups of hot tea.

Zhang Ming opened his mouth first: "The reason for inviting the two of you this time is mainly to hear from a colleague that your company intends to invest in Toutiao. Is that right?"

Lei Dongming smiled and said, "Yes, we do intend to invest in Toutiao. We came here today to have a good talk with you, Mr. Zhang."

Zhang Ming nodded, and asked again: "Is Rui always the main investor?"

Lei Dongming didn't answer, but looked at Zhang Yida.

In fact, Zhang Yida wanted to use Ruixiang as an investor, but because he had no money, he could only pull up a venture capital fund to enjoy this high-return bonus.

Rui has always invested, he is the major shareholder and can get most of the profits.In the case of venture capital, it is the 20% management fee, and most of it helps investors make money.

But it is not without benefits. After two or three years, after several small giants show their power, the venture capital fund they run will become a big hit, and raising funds and investing is as simple as drinking water.

Beckoning, investors are clamoring for investment.On the other side of the investment target, because it is a well-known venture capital, it will also make valuation concessions and expand the supply of shares.In short, there are many benefits.

On the way here, Zhang Yida had thought about all of this, and without entanglement, he replied directly: "I formed a new venture capital fund to invest in Toutiao in the name of the venture capital fund."

After hearing this, Zhang Ming began to think about it. At first, he thought that Ruixiang invested in Toutiao, and thought that he could strengthen cooperation with Ruixiang in the financial field later.If it's a venture capital investment, as long as you can afford it, that's fine!
Zhang Ming replied with a smile: "Venture investment is also possible, and the effect is the same. It's just that I thought it was Ruixiang's investment. I thought that the follow-up Toutiao could also strengthen cooperation with Ruixiang in the financial field."

Zhang Yida understood as soon as he heard it. He probably wanted to invite Rui Xiang's subsidiaries to settle in Toutiao, produce financial content for them, and cooperate in traffic and advertising.

So he said with a smile: "That's no problem, I will arrange for the following to do a docking later, and we can cooperate in content, traffic, and advertising."

Zhang Ming also happily agreed: "Okay, then it's such a happy decision. Next, let's talk about venture capital matters!"

Then Lei Dongming, as a senior investment expert, began to ask a series of questions. He asked and Zhang Ming answered.

Q: "How many users does Toutiao currently have?"

Answer: "Toutiao has 1 million active users and more than 3000 million monthly active users."

Q: "There are so many news websites and apps on the market, how can Toutiao stand out from the crowd?"

Answer: "After exploring the value of products in the first stage and improving the product form, Toutiao has entered the second stage of rapid development.

Different from the emphasis on algorithm training in the first stage, at this stage, Toutiao has begun to focus on product functions and optimize user experience.

The main purpose of a large number of new content presentation and distribution methods is to help users obtain more accurate information in Toutiao products, and improve user retention and usage time.

In terms of content, Toutiao has also begun to add new channels. At the same time, in terms of traffic acquisition, it supports more traffic acquisition methods, such as sharing to QQ, WeChat Moments, etc., to help Toutiao quickly acquire traffic.

These content and recommendation aspects and the way of importing traffic have paved the way for the rapid growth of Toutiao.

Next, Toutiao will enter a period of rapid growth, leaving all rivals behind. "

Question: "Apart from algorithms, content, and traffic, does Toutiao have any other killer features?"

Answer: "Toutiao has established the largest growth hacking team in China, and it is currently the top growth hacking team in the country.

The products and operations at the current stage are actually driven by the growth team.Technology is another advantage of us. "

……

Lei Dongming asked a series of questions, and Zhang Ming answered them all.

Lei Dongming glanced at Zhang Yida, indicating that the question was over.

Zhang Yida looked at Zhang Ming with a smile, gestured a "1", and said, "There is one last question. Toutiao has been relying on the crawler algorithm to capture content. You don't produce content, you only distribute content. How to solve the content copyright issue?"

Zhang Ming's face was a little unnatural, and he was silent for a long time, and then said: "Qian, as long as there is money, I will pull them into the platform to share advertising fees together, from confrontation to cooperation. When everyone has the same interests, there will be no copyright disputes." gone."

The corners of Zhang Yida's mouth rose, and the major media copyright companies in the previous life began to sue Toutiao one after another, demanding that Toutiao pay copyright fees.

The final solution is to discuss with major media companies, invite media companies to settle in Toutiao, and everyone who has money can make money together.

Since 2015, Toutiao has also undergone a great transformation, from a content distribution platform to a content production platform.

And Toutiao began to compare WeChat public accounts, machine distribution vs social distribution.

At the same time, in order to solve the supply problem on the content side, Toutiao released a plan to support 1000 Toutiao.

Later, Toutiao added original content and reward functions to help content creators obtain greater benefits.

Through these means, Toutiao laid the foundation for take-off and completed the leap to the dragon gate.

Zhang Yida leaned back, raised his legs, looked at Zhang Ming and said, "Then let's talk about valuation!"

Zhang Ming adjusted his glasses and said, "Toutiao has gone through 3 rounds of financing so far, from the angel round of 500 million yuan, to the A round of financing of 100 million US dollars, and last September's B round of financing of 9 million US dollars."

Pausing for a moment and looking at Zhang Yida, he continued: "Currently, we want to expand our team and market size, and we are seeking $1 million in Series C financing. Dilute 10% of the shares based on the post-investment valuation of $10 billion."

Without any hesitation, Zhang Yida directly agreed and said, "OK, we voted."

Both Zhang Ming and Lei Dongming were a little surprised, aren't they going to bargain?
Seemingly understanding what they were thinking, Zhang Yida smiled lightly and said, "I am optimistic about the future of Toutiao, and I am also optimistic about Brother Zhang Ming. Let's get on this train."

Next, the two parties communicated the details, organized due diligence, and signed the investment agreement after confirming that there was no problem.

Huayi Capital invested US$1 million in Toutiao, accounting for 10% of the shares.

首期资金3000万美元立马到账，第二期3000万美元3个月后到账，第三期4000万美元6个月后到账。

Zhang Ming did not express any objection. It is normal for venture capital funds to arrive in batches.

In fact, Zhang Yida ran out of money. So far, he only raised 6000 million U.S. dollars, and half of it was removed at once.

Zhang Yida and Lei Dongming founded Huayi Capital. So far, the first US dollar fund has only raised US$6000 million.

Yimin Wealth helped raise 2000 million US dollars through consignment sales, and entrusted some other third-party wealth management companies, such as Noah to sell 2000 million US dollars as a consignment, and Lei Dongming raised 2000 million US dollars from a fund of funds based on his past experience.A total of 6000 million US dollars.

The two shareholdings in Huayi Capital are also divided according to the amount of funds raised, Zhang Yida 66.7%, Lei Dongming 33.3%.

With the remaining 3000 million US dollars, the two went to Didi again.

Chen Wei has a round face, a little fat, with one eye, and looks quite honest and honest.

At this time, he was inseparable from Kuai's killing, and he was in the middle of a battle of burning money.Looking at the investors who came to the door, it was a warm welcome.

As an expert, Lei Dongming continued to ask questions, and Chen Wei also answered them one by one.

Everything is going well, and the main problem is the scale of financing.

Chen Wei said resolutely: "Currently, Didi has gone through 4 rounds of financing, and my share is less than 50%. This time, I can only release 5% of the shares at most in the C+ round of financing."

Zhang Yida was a little dissatisfied, because he was planning to buy more while you were still relatively cheap, and if you told me to sell less, that would not work.

Zhang Yida said with a strong attitude: "I am still very optimistic about the taxi-hailing industry. If you don't want my investment, then I will invest in Kuai!"

When Chen Wei heard this, his eyes were about to burst into flames.But after calming down, he felt that if Zhang Yida really invested quickly, the war would have to seesaw, and it was not certain who would win the battle!

When the two sides were at a stalemate, Lei Dongming made a smooth game, and both sides took a step back, and reached an agreement on the condition of financing 7.5%.

In January 14, Penguin and CITIC invested US$1 million, and Didi’s post-investment valuation was US$1 billion.

Two months later, the valuation has risen to $2 billion.

Huayi Capital invested US$9750 million, taking a 13% stake in Didi with a post-investment valuation of nearly US$7.5 billion.

The first phase of capital of 3000 million US dollars will be in place immediately, the second phase of 3000 million US dollars, the third phase of 3750 million US dollars in 3 months, and 6 months later.

Zhang Yida and Lei Dongming summed up, and the current difference in venture capital funds is still 1 million US dollars, which must be made up within 3750 months.In addition, a second tranche of $6 million will be allocated three months later.

The pressure is not small. In addition to Yimin Wealth and the entrusted third-party wealth management agency to help raise funds, we have to find other local tyrants.

After some discussion, they planned to start with the alumni circle first, and try to find senior brothers Robin Li and Dongfang Yu.

(End of this chapter)