I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 517: Another $31.8 billion in revenue! The final round of funding before the IPO!
In early winter in Shanghai, the goldenrain trees along the streets are a mix of green and red. A gust of cold wind sweeps by, and the withered yellow leaves on the treetops are swirled and turn into a flurry of motion.

A panda-themed Ghost sped past, slowing down slightly near the Longcao Road subway station before turning into an alley.

Pei Yi, 26 years old this year, was wearing a light gray suit and had a neat short haircut. He was standing at the entrance of Yi Garden, occasionally peeking out to look at the intersection.

Most people his age have only been working for a few years or have just graduated with a master's degree, and their monthly income is at most 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.

His annual salary has already reached more than 3 million, and the value of the shares he holds is as high as 500 to 600 million US dollars.

Life presents us with many choices, and often seizing the most crucial one can lead to meteoric success within two or three years.

"President Pei, the boss has arrived."

Kang Guodong, who was standing to the side, gently nudged Pei Yi's arm and whispered a reminder.

Gao Weilin, on the far left, yawned.

Last night, he spent two drinking sessions with Zhu Xiaohu of GSR Ventures, Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital, Liu Zhiping of Tencent, Liu Yiqing of Goldman Sachs, and Yu Heng of Huake Capital, among others, until the early hours of the morning.

His eyes were bloodshot and his brows showed signs of fatigue.

But upon seeing Chen Yansen's car, he immediately straightened his back.

After the car came to a stop, she jogged over and opened the car door for Chen Yansen.

"Boss," Gao Weilin greeted him with a smile.

"Didn't sleep well last night?" Chen Yansen glanced at him and asked casually.

"Martin from Penguin hosted the dinner, and we drank from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m., staying up for several extra hours," Gao Weilin quickly explained.

"Drink less. Your liver isn't good to begin with. Next time you go to a drinking party, just say you can't drink anymore. If anyone tries to force you to drink, tell them to come find me."

Chen Yansen patted Lao Gao on the shoulder and gave him some instructions.

He didn't want Gao Weilin to suffer the same fate as in his previous life, dying of liver cancer in just a few years.

If Lao Gao is gone, who will manage his money?
"Thank you for your concern, boss." Gao Weilin felt a warmth in his heart and looked at Chen Yansen with gratitude.

Although the boss assigned him work every day and treated him like a mule, Lao Gao thought: Why treat him like an animal and not find someone else?
This precisely demonstrates how much Chen Yansen values ​​him!
"Boss!" Pei Yi, Kang Guodong, and the others greeted in unison.

Shan Jiawei, Zhang Xuhao, and Liang Changlin stood in the second row, dressed in suits and looking very energetic.

Within the industry, the three of them are nicknamed "Chopsticks Running Three Tigers," as they respectively manage group buying, food delivery, and grocery shopping businesses.

Under Pei Yi's leadership, the project's valuation soared from $58 billion to $300 billion, a feat that can be described as indispensable.

"Guodong, the intelligent scheduling system you developed is excellent. You've worked hard these past two years."

Chen Yansen nodded in acknowledgment and praised Kang Guodong.

As Kuaipao's valuation soared, Kang Guodong no longer complained about losing his CEO position. He obediently stayed in the CTO position, spending all his time in the R&D and product departments, busy optimizing delivery routes, order dispatch, and transportation scheduling systems.

For example, the Kuaipao Hotel & Travel Merchant Management System is one of his achievements, providing strong technical support for the on-the-ground sales team's business development work.

"Thank you for the compliment, boss. It's just my duty," Kang Guodong replied with a smile.

He knew in his heart that the facts proved Pei Yi was more suitable for the CEO position.

Under Pei Yi's management, Kuai Pao became an oligopoly in the local services industry in just two years.

Privately, he had seriously considered whether he could achieve the same results if he were in that situation.

After some thought, he finally shook his head with a wry smile.

Perhaps, focusing on technology development isn't so bad.

"What time did you arrange to meet Martin and the others?"

Chen Yansen looked at Gao Weilin and asked.

"Ten o'clock, forty minutes to go," Gao Weilin replied.

"Come on in, don't just stand there."

Chen Yansen waved his hand and led the way into Yi Garden.

Starting in June, Kuaipao moved its headquarters to Shanghai, which is why Kang Guodong is here.

The three small buildings in Yiyuan alone were clearly insufficient to meet the daily office needs, so the Hongrun Building diagonally opposite was also acquired. Now, both places are Kuaipao's office areas, accommodating more than 6,000 employees.

A frosted glass door slowly opened, revealing green trees and red flowers behind it, with several koi swimming leisurely in the pond.

Although Yiyuan is small, its landscaping and layout are ingenious, making it suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises. However, it feels a bit cramped for a large internet company like Kuaipao.

However, Pei Yi had already made plans and was negotiating with Caohejing Development Zone, Zhangjiang High-Tech Software Park, and Jinke Road Science Park to strive for the best entry policies.

Once the agreement is reached, Kuai Pao will relocate to a new campus with more space.

Zhang Xuhao followed behind, a sense of regret rising in his heart.

Chen Yansen's first choice for investment was Ele.me, but in order to raise his own value, he used Ele.me's assets to negotiate with Ali and Tencent. Unexpectedly, his attempt to steal a chicken backfired.

Despite finally gaining Ahri's support, he was still defeated by Kuaipao.

Unfortunately, there are no second chances in life.

Zhang Xuhao smiled with relief.

He was quite satisfied with being able to take on the position of head of the food delivery business, serve as the business general manager, and enjoy generous salary and stock option rewards.

Once the company goes public, the stock options I hold will be worth at least hundreds of millions of yuan, enough to achieve financial freedom.

Pei Yi led Chen Yansen into a large conference room, which was about 100 square meters in size.

It's more than adequate as a venue for the Series C funding launch event.

Not long after Chen Yansen sat down, Liu Zhiping arrived, followed by Lin Chenfeng, the vice president of Tencent's investment department.

To put it bluntly, Liu Zhiping's personal involvement was to demonstrate Tencent's high regard for Chen Yansen, while the specific coordination work still had to be handled by Lin Chenfeng.

"Martin, please have a seat! Would you like some tea?"

Chen Yansen smiled and pressed Liu Zhiping into his seat, then asked a question.

"How about Longjing tea? Let's try something different," Liu Zhiping replied with a smile.

Upon hearing this, the director of administration nodded slightly and turned to go out to make tea.

"Zhou is suing Tencent again?"

Chen Yansen asked again.

"I'm used to it. Zhou Dapao, he's a man whose name means 'big talker'. It would be abnormal if he didn't cause trouble one day."

Liu Zhiping shrugged and said with a helpless expression.

The current conflict between 360 and Tencent centers on the distribution of application software.

Both companies wanted to compete for the mobile internet gateway. They first engaged in a war of words for a few days, but then Zhou Hongyi turned around and sued Tencent.

Regardless of whether it's effective or not, sue first. But in reality, Orange App Store and Aurora Future App Store control nearly 30% of the domestic app distribution market, 91 Assistant, 360 Mobile Assistant, Wandoujia and the App Store occupy 50% of the market, and Tencent App Store has less than 10% of the market.

Zhou Hongyi, however, is stubbornly clinging to penguins; what else could he be but a mad dog?
A classic case of bullying the weak and fearing the strong!

But they didn't dare to yell at Orange Technology!
Chen Yansen smiled slightly and did not express any opinion.

In his opinion, 91 Assistant, Wandoujia, and Yingyongbao are destined to be outdated and won't last long.

From the user's perspective, the memory space is something they paid real money for, so who wants to download multiple app stores on their phone?

The app stores that come pre-installed with the phone manufacturer or the system are sufficient; third-party app stores will eventually go out of business.

Despite Robin Li's high-profile announcement of spending $1.9 billion to acquire 91 Assistant, which was hailed by the media as a wise choice to "capture the mobile traffic portal," Chen Yansen thought it was incredibly stupid.

"Mr. Chen, you didn't attend Pinbei's North American roadshow. Are you not going to skip the IPO either?"

Seeing that Chen Yansen wasn't very interested in the topic, Liu Zhiping changed the subject and started a new one.

"We'll see when the time comes. After all, whether I go or not won't affect Pinbei's stock price. Investors look at the project's revenue, profit, and development potential, not whether the founder attends the bell-ringing ceremony."

Chen Yansen said dismissively.

While deeply tying the founder to the project may seem to drive traffic to the company, a collapse in the founder's reputation can be fatal to the product.

After the two chatted for more than ten minutes, Zhu Xiaohu, Zhang Lei, Liu Yiqing and Yu Heng also arrived one after another.

Among these four venture capital firms, there are state-owned enterprises, private capital, and overseas capital.

There are underlying conditions for Goldman Sachs' involvement: once the domestic O2O market stabilizes, Kuaipao will expand into international markets, heading to Europe and the United States to compete with Grubhub, DoorDash, and Just Eat.

Chen Yansen secretly sized up Liu Yiqing. She was in her early thirties, wearing a beige haute couture suit, a new autumn collection from Chanel, worth over 80,000 yuan.

It's hard to believe that her family background is the reason she rose to the position of Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Asia in just ten years.

At the same time, Liu Yiqing was also observing Chen Yansen.

"Mr. Chen, Martin organized the gathering yesterday, but I'll make the arrangements for tonight. It's been a while since we last met."

Yu Heng from Huake Investment warmly greeted him.

As the leader of the Kuaipao project, he invested $2.32 million in the Series B round, exchanging it for 4% equity, which is currently worth $12 billion. The return on investment is as high as 417.2%, which has earned him a very generous commission and accumulated capital for promotion.

In addition, his investment in the fast ride-hailing project also brought him considerable profits.

Therefore, he naturally wanted to get closer to the 'God of Wealth'.

"That won't do! President Pei should at least be the host, Martin, what do you say?"

Chen Yansen jokingly said with a smile.

"It would be best if President Yu and President Pei took turns treating us," Liu Zhiping joked.

Liu Yiqing smiled and echoed the sentiments along with Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei.

The atmosphere at the launch meeting for Kuaipao's Series C financing was exceptionally relaxed. Everyone knew that, given the current pace of development, this was very likely Kuaipao's last round of financing before its IPO.

Five investment institutions in total all submitted their intended offers.

They knew very well that an extra percentage of shareholding could potentially bring them an extra billion or two billion US dollars in profits in the future.

“I have reviewed all of your intended bids. Five companies have been shortlisted in this round, but there are differences in their valuations.”

Given the limited percentage of equity available for sale, I will eliminate two companies. Using $300 billion as a baseline, whoever offers the highest bid will be selected. Fair enough, right?

Chen Yansen spoke slowly.

With its potential, Kuaipao has no shortage of investors.

Liu Yiqing frowned inwardly. From Chen Yansen's tone, she could only read the word "assertive".

Having worked at Goldman Sachs for many years, this was the first time she had encountered a founder like this, who completely disregarded investment institutions.

But when she glanced at the expressions of the others, she was surprised to find that everyone looked normal, clearly indicating that they approved of Chen Yansen's decision.

$300 billion?
Zhu Xiaohu gasped. He had been eliminated in the previous round of GSR Ventures, so this time he deliberately raised his bid, changing the initial valuation of $240 billion to $260 billion.

To his astonishment, Chen Yansen's bottom line was 300 billion US dollars!
It increased by a full 40 billion US dollars.

At the same time, the fact that Chen Yansen dared to say this means that more than one company has offered $300 billion.

Liu Zhiping smiled faintly, sat calmly in his seat, played with the pen in his hand, and then wrote down the pre-determined number on the quotation sheet.

Tencent is the second largest shareholder of Kuaipao. The higher the valuation, the greater the profits. Tencent is happy to help Chen Yansen.

"300 billion US dollars?"

Yu Heng squinted. This valuation was 15 billion US dollars different from his offer, but it wasn't a big problem. He had the authority to make the decision.

Zhu Xiaohu glanced around, taking in the expressions on the faces of the others. His heart skipped a beat; everyone else seemed calm and composed.

Chen Yansen leaned back, waiting for the final quote.

Logically, before signing a preliminary written agreement, the process should be 'kick-off meeting → due diligence → internal review', after which the quotation stage will begin, in which the investment amount, equity ratio, valuation, closing conditions, shareholder rights, etc. will be determined.

But who gave Chopsticks the upper hand?

In particular, Liu Zhiping, Yu Heng, and Zhang Lei were already familiar with Chen Yansen's style of doing things, so they didn't bother to argue and quickly wrote down their names on the quotation.

Zhu Xiaohu gritted his teeth, but in the end he didn't dare to hesitate.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen glanced at the handed-over price list and then announced unhurriedly, "Congratulations to Tencent, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Goldman Sachs."

$305 billion worth of assets were eliminated?

Zhu Xiaohu stood there, stunned.

Zhang Lei pushed up his glasses and sighed slightly. Hillhouse Capital had only invested in one round of funding for an industry giant like Kuaipao, holding only a 2.6% stake, with limited expected returns.

Chen Yansen handed over the next steps to Pei Yi and Gao Weilin, while he himself took Liu Zhiping, Yu Heng, and others to an office for tea and a chat.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei exchanged a glance and followed.

Although the business deal didn't go through, since we're already here, we should take this opportunity to deepen our relationship.

at the same time.

Yang Weidong of Taihua Group received a call from the investment department of Senlian Capital. After hearing the purpose of the call, a look of ecstasy immediately appeared on his face.

the other side.

After signing letters of intent with Tencent, Goldman Sachs, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Pei Yi suddenly felt a sense of unreality.

The Series C funding round raised $31.8 billion, with Tencent receiving 4%, Goldman Sachs 4%, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology 2%.

In just two or three years, Kuai Pao's valuation soared to $318 billion, which is truly unbelievable.

The next morning, Chen Yansen took a car to Zizhu Software Park in MH District.

(End of this chapter)