I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 305 Ele.me's Second Round of Financing
Since Wu Zeyuan had no objections, Fang Qingye immediately called Qian Weimin and Song Qingdong to communicate. After the board of directors of Yuxiang Gas Company made a decision, Wu Zeyuan replaced Wang Chenyang to take office.

On the day Wu Zeyuan went to work at Yuxiang Company, Fang Qingye, Qian Weimin, and Song Qingdong also rushed to the company and held a grand welcome ceremony.

Today, Wu Zeyuan specially wore a new suit and tie, and replaced his old black-rimmed glasses with gold-rimmed ones. His hair was combed neatly, and he immediately showed the demeanor of a senior corporate executive.

At the nursery, Fang Qingye appointed Fang Fei as the cashier to be in charge of the nursery's financial work, and also hired a girl to be in charge of the office, running errands and doing some miscellaneous tasks.

With Nanxin's affairs settled, Wang Chenyang completely handed over the financial work to Wu Zeyuan, then packed his bags and followed Fang Qingye to Shanghai.

The weather was gloomy and cold today. Fang Qingye was driving her Mercedes-Benz with Wang Chenyang in the passenger seat.

“Chenyang, the company will provide you with a house in Shanghai. You can choose a house and transfer it to your name. After the house is completed, you can renovate it. It will be your and Xu Mei’s wedding house in the future. However, you will need to rent a house first when you go there.”

"Thank you, Mr. Fang. Buying 100 apartments in one go—that's quite a generous move," Wang Chenyang exclaimed. "From the perspective of preserving and increasing the company's assets, it's also a very wise choice."

"If we don't offer them good conditions, how can these PhDs and Masters work with peace of mind?" Fang Qingye said with a smile. "Next, we need to find a way to solve their problem of settling down in Shanghai—Chenyang, the same goes for you."

“Xu Mei has a Shanghai hukou (household registration), and if we get married and have children, they will also have a Shanghai hukou, so it doesn’t matter to me whether I have one or not,” Wang Chenyang said.

"Yes, it's all for the sake of the children, so you need to hurry up and have them."

"Mr. Fang, I'll drive. You can rest for a while," Wang Chenyang said.

"No need, it's still an hour's drive."

“Mr. Fang, you should hire a full-time driver,” Wang Chenyang said.

"I'm used to driving alone and it's really not comfortable with someone else driving—we'll talk about it after the new company is established next year," Fang Qingye said with a smile.

At that time, my work focus will shift to Shanghai, and I will need to hire a full-time driver.

The two chatted and laughed, and upon arriving in Shanghai, they stayed at the Fortune Hotel near the company. After meeting Li Li and briefly explaining the situation, they asked her to contact Zhang Xuhao and others from Ele.me to come to the company to discuss business.

The meeting was scheduled to take place in the company's conference room.

Since Wei Xinghua joined the company, she has been leading a group of doctoral and master's students to research the mathematical model in her high-frequency quantitative trading. Sometimes they need to gather at the company for meetings, and one office is really inconvenient.

So Fang Qingye asked Li Li to find another room to rent. There were no vacant rooms on the third floor, so they rented a room on the fourth floor, did some simple renovations, and installed necessary facilities such as a projector and internet access to use it as the company's meeting room.

This morning, the four founding members of Ele.me—Zhang Xuhao, Kang Jia, Wang Yuan, and Deng Ye—gathered in the conference room of Tuofang Technology. Qin Jing, who had been assigned by Tuofang Technology to intern at Ele.me, also returned.

On the Tuofang Company side, Fang Qingye, Li Li, and Wang Chenyang all participated and discussed financing matters together.

Everyone looked at Wang Chenyang, who was sitting upright, with some curiosity, wondering why this unfamiliar middle-aged man was in the conference room.

"Let me introduce you first. This is Wang Chenyang, a graduate of Shencai University. He used to be the vice president in charge of finance at Nanxin Yuxiang Hot Air Company. Now he has been transferred to the headquarters of Tuofang Technology and will be assigned to another position," Fang Qingye said.

Shencai!
Zhang Xuhao felt a chill run down his spine. He knew that Fang Qingye particularly liked to use people who graduated from Shencai University, and they were usually his confidants.

After introducing themselves, the group got down to business.

"Chairman Fang, Ele.me is developing very rapidly. As of last month, its revenue exceeded 2000 million yuan. At the same time, it launched a mobile web ordering platform, allowing users to order food online via their mobile phones. I have already explained these details in my email report, so I will not repeat them here."

"Based on the company's development, our original office space is too small, so we have decided to find a more suitable location. In addition, we plan to open two branch offices in Beijing and Hangzhou to further expand our scale, so we need further financing. I have also sent the asset valuation report of KPMG Asset Appraisal (Shencheng) Co., Ltd. to your email address, Mr. Fang."

Fang Qingye nodded.

He had already read the email and shown it to Wang Chenyang and Li Li. KPMG is a global organization comprised of independent professional members and one of the world's top accounting professional services firms. This time, they valued Ele.me at 5.6 million, which Fang Qingye and Wang Chenyang felt was quite suitable after careful consideration.

"Xuhao, how much more funding are you planning to raise?"

"5000."

“Sure,” Fang Qingye readily agreed. “All of it will be invested by Tuofang Technology.”

Zhang Xuhao was not surprised by Fang Qingye's attitude. Although Tuofang Technology currently has few employees, it has very strong assets. The fact that it recently bought 100 houses for future employees is proof of this.

Zhang Xuhao had never seen such an extravagant company before!

Of course, he also had his own concerns. With Tuofang Technology continuously injecting capital, it meant that Tuofang Technology's shareholding was becoming increasingly larger, and he was very worried that he would lose his say in Ele.me.

Of course, the two sides are currently cooperating happily. Although Fang Qingye is the chairman of Ele.me, he rarely gets involved in the company's affairs, which are still handled by their team.

But what about the future?

Zhang Xuhao and his team exchanged glances. He continued, "Our team would very much like to hear from Tuofang Technology about their continued investment, but I have a few conditions to consider."

"You said."

"First, I think the company should set aside a portion of its equity, about 5%, to reward and incentivize outstanding employees."

"Okay," Fang Qingye readily agreed.

"Secondly, I want to maintain the stability of our initial team. Unless an individual violates national laws and regulations or company rules and causes significant losses to the company, the board of directors will have no choice but to dismiss them," Zhang Xuhao added.

Are you worried that I'll kick your team out of Eleme?

It's understandable that Zhang Xuhao is worried because many companies that have acquired capital control are now doing this.

However, I won't, at least not now.

"Third, if we include this 5000 million, Ele.me has already completed two rounds of financing. I hope to bring in other capital during the third round of financing."

Zhang Xuhao's meaning was very clear: he couldn't keep letting Tuofang Technology invest in him, otherwise the company would eventually be his!

When Zhang Xuhao made this condition, Wang Chenyang and Li Li both looked at Fang Qingye.

Fang Qingye remained calm and thought for a moment: "Okay, but the final decision on which strategic capital to introduce must be made by me!"

Fang Qingye's meaning was very clear: the board of directors could make suggestions, but in the end, I had to make the final decision!

Zhang Xuhao understood that Fang Qingye had agreed to three conditions in a row, especially the second one, which meant that his team would have a firm grip on the operation of Ele.me, so he had to back down.

“Okay, we agree,” Zhang Xuhao said.

“Okay, I also have a condition: I will send Wang Chenyang to Ele.me to serve as a director and concurrently as CFO,” Fang Qingye said slowly.

The others didn't react much, but Kang Jia's expression changed drastically because he was mainly responsible for the company's administration and finance, which meant the company was going to reduce his power.

(End of this chapter)