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

Chapter 474 ByteDance's Series A Funding

Fortunately, Bai Ou only wasted one day. The agent took the two to see the second phase of the International Finance Centre in Central, Hong Kong. This place is home to many multinational financial institutions, such as UBS AG of Switzerland, State Street Bank of the United States, and Yingfeng Treasury Market, and is known as the Wall Street of Asia.

Another location is the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, also known as Cyberport, located in the Pok Fu Lam area.

Here, birds sing and flowers bloom, and people and nature coexist harmoniously. Many small and medium-sized fintech companies are located here, such as digital asset financial services group HashKey Group, ZhongAn International, online financial services company WeLab, and cross-border payment platform Airwallex, etc.

"Alright, I'll take the documents back and discuss it with Li Li, Wei Xinghua, and other senior executives! In the future, Ele.me, even Zhiyun Technology, ByteDance, and even Jinghai Bank can open branches in Hong Kong!" Bai Ou said happily.

"What? Ready to ambitiously break out of the country and go global?" Fang Qingye joked.

"Yes, that's an idea! Companies of all sizes are going international these days, and the country is encouraging it. Our Tuofang Technology is no exception!"

"Good, that's ambitious! I support you!" Fang Qingye laughed, "I'll stay in Nanxin County and be your strong support!"

"You're trying to slack off!" Bai Ou snorted.

"With a diligent wife, you can't help but be lazy."

"You're so annoying!" Bai Ou pinched Fang Qingye's arm in retaliation.

"Alright, stop joking." Fang Qingye stopped joking, and her tone became serious: "Actually, internationalization is a double-edged sword. The so-called 'businesses have no borders' is nonsense. The obstacles to internationalization will only increase in the future, both economic and political."

"You seem a bit pessimistic."

"The golden age of free trade is over, just like this city we live in. Okay, let's not talk about this anymore." Fang Qingye changed the subject.

“Let’s take it one step at a time. First, we’ll set up a branch in Hong Kong, and then gradually invest overseas, such as cooperating with Qiao Yongfeng to invest in the soybean industry in Brazil.”

"Mmm. I want to go to Brazil too!" Bai Ou immediately became interested.

“Okay, if you go, I won’t go. I’ll stay and guard the house,” Fang Qingye said immediately.

"Hate!"

In the following days, the two enthusiastically visited Victoria Peak, Lamma Island, and Wong Tai Sin Temple. They also made a special trip to Mong Kok, the filming location of "As Tears Go By," and Causeway Bay, the filming location of the "Young and Dangerous" series, to experience the territory of the Causeway Bay gangsters.

Bai Ou was greatly disappointed; it wasn't even as big as Nanxin County.

Then we went to Fisherman's Wharf and Macau Tower in Macau, and 10 days later we flew back to Jinghai.

After returning home and resting for only two days, Fang Qingye had to go to Shanghai to work and discuss opening a branch office in Hong Kong. She had no choice but to accompany him.

At least we're still in our honeymoon period, and I took a month off.

When his wife went to work, Fang Qingye would go out for tea with Shi Guangrong or the two of them would go fishing, living a very leisurely life.

However, the good days were over in just a few days. Wang Yu of ByteDance flew from Beijing to Shanghai to report to Fang Qingye.

Wang Yu was appointed as CFO by Fang Qingye in the spring of 11, when ByteDance had just been established, just like Wang Chenyang and Xu Mei.

I've been working in Beijing for over a year, and of course, I regularly report ByteDance's development to Fang Qingye via email.

The current ByteDance was founded earlier than in its history, and with the ample funding from Topway Technology, it can expand at a faster pace.

Within two years of its establishment, its flagship product, Toutiao, had surpassed 10 million active users. However, the initial investment of over 10 million yuan was dwindling, and the company faced the challenge of securing further funding. Since Zhang Yimin was unable to leave Beijing, he specifically sent Wang Yu to give a special report to Chairman Fang Qingye.

This is a big deal!
Fang Qingye, of course, did not hesitate.

As the CEO of Tuofang Technology, Bai Ou had already arranged for Wang Yu's airport pickup and accommodation, while Fang Qingye only needed to receive him in her office.

Although Fang Qingye originally intended to give his office to Bai Ou, Bai Ou disagreed. "You may be stepping down as CEO, but you are still the actual controller of Tuofang Technology. How can you not have an office?"
If you're meeting guests to discuss work, you can't exactly stand in the hallway and chat.

More importantly, this way you won't be lazy!

Anyway, there are still vacant offices, so I can just choose any one.

This afternoon, Fang Qingye met Wang Yu in her office.

Compared to when he was tanned like a charcoal stick during his internship at Huacheng Development Company a year ago, he has regained his former scholarly appearance, but his expression is much more composed, and his demeanor exudes the air of a company executive. Although the past year has been tiring, the achievements have been remarkable. What was originally a small company with only a dozen or so people has rapidly grown to over 100. They have also changed the traditional, fixed news delivery model, using big data and algorithms to recommend personalized news information to users.

This completely overturns the traditional news delivery model!
Wang Yu was proud of this, and of course, he was also very grateful to Aoba.

He was a dropout from Shencai University back then, and didn't even have a graduation certificate!

He spent all his time playing games at internet cafes, which means Fang Qingye took him in.

"Wang Yu, have a seat," Fang Qingye greeted with a smile, then suddenly changed the subject: "Do you still play games?"

what? !

Wang Yu was taken aback, not expecting that Fang Qingye's first question upon meeting him would be about this.

After regaining his senses, he smiled and said, "I do play, but not Warcraft, I play FarmVille, I just don't have time."

"Sigh, it's been a long time since I've played World of Warcraft," Fang Qingye remarked.

Now he spends more of his leisure time drinking tea, fishing, or tending to flowers and plants in the nursery, perhaps because he is getting old?

My mental age is well over 40.

Wang Yu, of course, had no idea.

However, he knew that talking about games with his boss felt a bit off-topic, especially since they needed to discuss more important matters.

So he cleverly changed the subject: "Although ByteDance has a large young workforce, very few people play games. Everyone works overtime every day, which is why the company has grown so quickly."

"996 is a blessing, isn't it?" Fang Qingye joked, then got down to business: "Okay, tell me your financing ideas."

"This is a written document, the result of discussions among our senior management." Wang Yu took a thick document from his briefcase and placed it on the coffee table.

"In addition, the electronic version of the materials has been sent to your and Mr. Bai's email addresses."

Fang Qingye nodded, but did not take the documents, clearly indicating that she wanted Wang Yu to give a verbal report.

"The company was valued at 10 billion RMB by KPMG," Wang Yu said.

"Huh? In less than two years, the company's revenue has skyrocketed from over 10 million to 1000 billion RMB?" Fang Qingye was slightly surprised.

It seems to be higher than historically?

"Yes, we are also very excited. After all, we are the first in the world to use big data and algorithms to distribute news and information, and our development prospects are very broad." Wang Yu's tone was full of pride.

"This time we plan to raise 200 million yuan, mainly to purchase a large number of chips for computing power and to expand the company's scale," Wang Yu reported.

"Before I came to Shanghai this time, several investors had already expressed strong interest and contacted us, saying they were willing to invest in ByteDance."

Fang Qingye immediately became interested. "Who exactly?"

"First, there's SIG Asia. Ms. Wang Qiong was one of ByteDance's initial investors, and she spoke with us on behalf of SIG Asia this time."

Fang Qingye laughed after hearing this.

"When ByteDance was founded, Wang Qiong consulted with SIG Asia Investment Company, but they were not interested. So Wang Qiong personally invested in the company. Has she finally seen the value of the company this time?"

"Yes, they are very eager."

"If we're not in a hurry, who else is there?"

"Qihoo 360, DST Global, and Alibaba."

"Alibaba?!"

(End of this chapter)