King of Capital

Chapter 93: Another Tactical Change
The water flowed, splashing clear drops on the sink. Song Anli stared at the mirror in a daze.

Xie Jing Xing leaned over to wash off the ink on his face, then looked up at her: "Are you scared?"

"No."

Song Anli wet her fingers and rubbed her face. A trace of ink spread out and gradually faded, flowing into the sewer pipe along with the water: "That person seems to be a student?"

"Yeah, very young."

Song Anli wiped her face with a tissue: "It's pretty good."

She balled up the tissue and gently threw it into the trash can. Xie Jingxing smiled, stood up straight, straightened his collar, and patted her shoulder.

Being young means you have the opportunity to start over again, without having to resort to the same gamble as those entrepreneurs who bet their entire fortune. This is really good.

It often takes venture capitalists who have just entered the industry a short or long period of time to understand that investors cannot save all the unfortunate projects they encounter. They can only learn to find a suitable excuse to comfort themselves and move forward with the future they cannot see.

It took Song Anli only ten minutes or less to realize this. Her outstanding talent deserves encouragement.

“Can Didi make it to the end?”

She asked seriously as she walked into the financing signing ceremony venue in Didi's office, which was decorated with flowers and ribbons and filled with a festive atmosphere.

Tang Man stood beside her and frowned, looking at her, then at Cheng Wei. This was not a question that an assistant should ask in such an occasion.

Xie Jingxing gave Didi’s management team and representatives of Jianyin Direct Investment Fund an apologetic smile: “We can try. At least we are on the way.”

"There will always be someone who will make it to the end in this industry, why can't it be Didi?" Cheng Wei, who had just changed into a new set of clothes, asked happily without caring.

Song Anli bowed slightly: "Thank you, Mr. Cheng."

"I'm still waiting to change offices and recruit you!"

Cheng Wei followed up with a joke, and everyone present applauded and cheered. The little episode was glossed over and the formal signing process began.

Tang Man personally led several teams to draft the final contract last night, and returned to the Magic City overnight to have Xie Jingxing sign it. Today's visit was mainly a formality, and the investors from all parties met and took photos and exchanged a few polite words.

The official investment share is slightly different from the estimate. The total financing share is US$1.2 million. Didi transferred 35% of its equity. Ignoring the decimals, Taihe invested US$6000 million, accounting for 3600%, CCB's "CCB Direct Investment" invested 2400 million, accounting for the third layer, and Tencent followed up with million, accounting for two layers.

Jianxin Direct Investment said that according to the 4/3/3 ratio, the gap between the lead investment and the follow-up investment was too small and Tencent held too many shares, so Cheng Wei and Tencent had to make concessions and Taihe got a % share.

Therefore, the equity distribution after this round of investment is: Taihe Capital holds 17.3%, Grapefruit Capital 5.2%, China Construction Bank Direct Investment 10.5%, Tencent a total of 18.75%, the founding team 32.5%, GSR Ventures and Matrix China 6%, and the option pool 9.75%.

Jianxin Direct Investment, the founding team and the option pool are exactly the same. Several investors led by Taihe have made concessions to varying degrees. Jinshajiang and Matrix China have made the biggest concessions, but they are also the ones who have made the most money so far.

Didi's post-investment valuation in this round is as high as 4.5 million US dollars. They have made almost five or six times the profit. And with the re-investment of state-owned capital and big players such as Taihe and Tencent, the days of making money are still ahead.

"Mr. Xie, I've heard of your name for a long time, and today I finally meet you. Let's take a photo together."

The signing ceremony ended successfully. Zhu Xiaohu from Jinshajiang Venture Capital warmly invited him. He is the same age as Xiao Ma Ge. He has single eyelids, triangular eyes and a Beckham-style short haircut, and looks quite social.

The representative of Jianxin Direct Investment was a middle-aged uncle with glasses and a rather elegant temperament. The old acquaintance of Tencent was Peng Zhijian who was present in person. The three of them pushed Xie Jingxing to the side of Cheng Wei.

Cheng Wei took the initiative to give up the C position in the photo to give enough face to the second largest shareholder. The two of them pushed each other and took a photo in the C position.

"Boss Tang, come here."

Xie Jingxing asked them to stand in his position, made a phone gesture to everyone, and ended the group photo and left the venue first.

Song Anli stood in a small meeting room next to the venue, holding up her phone. "CEO Liu sent a message saying that Baidu CEO Robin Li and Kuaidi CEO Lu Chuanwei arrived in Beijing today."

"Anything else?" Xie Jingxing frowned slightly.

Song Anli looked a little strange: "She also said that Mr. Ma is here, and that several central cities such as Jinan and Jinling are likely to restrict private cars from entering the online car-hailing industry and classify them as illegal taxis."

"…She is really well-informed."

Xie Jingxing fell into deep thought. It would take some time for Liu Qing to leave Goldman Sachs. She would probably be able to start work before the end of this month. According to what they had agreed upon during the barbecue that night, her first job was to help Didi with its share restructuring. The second job now seemed to be to do marketing and public relations.

There is no doubt that Mr. Li and Mr. Ma came to Beijing for AutoNavi. As for Kuaidi’s CEO Lu Chuanwei, did he come to Beijing to celebrate a birthday?

If Liu Qing's news is true, then Shanghai, Suzhou, Jinan, Jinling and other major cities in the East China region will all impose relevant restrictions on online ride-hailing services, with only Hangzhou left out. The main battlefield in Shanghai is once again in a tense situation among the three companies.

Bumblebee went to Guangdong and Guangxi to open up a new battlefield, and Kuaidi's way to the south was almost blocked. It became a natural idea to go north to open up a second battlefield and enter Beijing to directly attack Didi's base camp.

In this way, the offense and defense changed, and Mr. Ma turned the defensive counterattack into a move where the enemy could go and I could go too. This move was really ruthless.

"It's a bit early." Xie Jingxing exhaled slowly and gave his conclusion in a low voice.

The office door was opened, and Cheng Wei walked in with a serious expression: "Have you received the news from Liu Qing?" "We will be going to Beijing soon. There are great risks in supervision. We have to let Liu Qing take up his post as soon as possible." Xie Jingxing said bluntly.

Cheng Wei gritted his teeth and said, "This grandson of Lu Chuanwei played too dirty."

He still retained the most basic respect for Teacher Ma. Xie Jingxing didn't think that Lu Chuanwei would dare to do this without Teacher Ma's approval.

In May, Didi launched a price war in Beijing to fight against a large number of competitors. Beijing urgently issued the "Trial Measures for the Management of Taxi Call-in Services" to forcibly unify the vicious competition in the online car-hailing market.

Then in June and July, Didi went to Shanghai and fought a more intense price war with Bumblebee for two months. After less than a month of peace, Xie Jingxing entered the price war and took it to the next level, directly burning tens of millions of dollars.

Many cities, including Shanghai, have imposed regulatory restrictions on online ride-hailing services. Under such circumstances, no one dares to say whether Kuaidi's opening up of a battlefield in Beijing will cause even greater disturbances. After all, this is the best place under the feet of the emperor.

Lu Chuanwei is like a rogue carrying a bomb. Anyway, Kuaidi doesn't have much market share in Beijing. If there are any problems at the regulatory level, Didi will definitely suffer the most.

"In addition to getting Liu Qing to work as soon as possible, we will also make efforts in Hangzhou, just changing the home."

Xie Jingxing suppressed his anger and considered countermeasures. Alibaba did not have any problems with the supervision in Hangzhou, so they just opened up a hard bridge and hard horse to compete for subsidies.

He paused and continued, "Pengcheng has been banning online ride-hailing services for several months. Let Brother Xiao Ma think of a solution instead of just watching Bumblebee struggle in Yangcheng."

"Isn't this a huge amount of money?" Cheng Wei tried to calm down.

In fact, if you calm down and think carefully, the regulatory situation in Beijing can't be that bad. If you can't do this, how can Liu Qing get shares and options? The strategy of entering Beijing quickly is not so easy to implement.

Xie Jingxing raised his eyebrows: "You just added 100 million US dollars to your account, are you afraid of burning money? At this point, no one has a way out. Whoever is afraid will lie down first. I will talk to Tencent."

What Tencent wants is the mobile payment market. Now, for every extra penny Didi spends, the number of WeChat payment customers increases by one point, and the corresponding market share of Alipay decreases by one point. Pony Ma will not be reluctant to spend money.

To put it nicely, Mr. Ma's rogue behavior is a clever move, but to put it bluntly, he is just being pushed into a corner. As long as Didi is not killed instantly, the market share of WeChat Pay will continue to grow. It seems that he and Robin Li have become sparring partners for WeChat Pay.

Taking advantage of the situation to expand the overall market share of mobile payments is not a solution. Let Alipay's market share growth rate be higher than WeChat Pay, thus achieving a defensive goal.

"There are still 900 million US dollars in Xiyou's account. If you dare to fight, I will fight you to the end." Xie Jingxing said in a gentle tone.

Cheng Wei opened his mouth to say something when suddenly cheers and applause were heard outside the office, but they could not be heard clearly through the glass door.

He looked through the glass window at his colleagues outside who were excited and beaming, pushed up the legs of his glasses, and twitched the corners of his mouth: "I have sold insurance, worked in pedicure, and worked in sales."

Xie Jingxing nodded, said nothing more, and walked out of the office with Song Anli and closed the door for him.

The noisy cheers suddenly became real and vivid. Several Didi employees stuffed his hands with flowers, and someone twisted the fireworks in his hand and colorful ribbons fell all over the sky.

"Thank you, Mr. Xie, for helping Didi create the largest valuation in the history of domestic startups!" Didi's co-founder Wang Gang shouted with a red face.

Xie Jingxing handed a few bouquets of flowers to Song Anli, took the champagne glass from Tang Man and raised it to signal: "All employees of the company will receive a 500 yuan red envelope each. Be modest and keep working hard. I hope I can give you more red envelopes in the next round of Didi valuation."

The atmosphere on the scene became even more heated. At this moment, every employee felt that Didi would be the last one to survive in this industry.

…………

"Congratulations, this achievement is yours. How should I reward you?"

On the way back to the hotel after leaving Didi’s office, Xie Jingxing asked sincerely.

Tang Man shrugged tiredly: "Didi director, Grapefruit Capital owns 4% of the investment share in Didi's Series D financing. I am already satisfied."

“Keep it up. Didi’s second round of marketing promotions is about to begin. You should keep an eye on Beijing and invest in other good projects.” Xie Jingxing stopped there. It was not time to celebrate yet.

After a slight hesitation, he asked, "Are you very close to the CCB group?"

"No need to be so tactful. It was Xiao Song who told you, right?" Tang Man leaned against the car window lazily.

Song Anli stroked her hair uncomfortably. She was browsing the introduction page of the management team members on the official website of CCB two days ago and was seen by Xie Jingxing, but it was not her intention to leak it.

Xie Jing Xing laughed: "What I want to say is that you were too low-key before."

"In our industry, everyone has their own unique resources. There's nothing to brag about."

Tang Man was frank and joking and said, "Don't you know Su He's resources?"

"Why don't you tell me what deep hatred you two have?" Xie Jingxing asked back.

"..."

(End of this chapter)