Reborn: Billionaire in College

Chapter 158 Financing Plan Launched
After taking Ge Mengshi under his wing, Chen Pingjiang was in a very good mood, and the worry he had been having for a long time was cured.

I believe that with the addition of Ge Mengshi, the catering industry will be even more powerful.

Walking out of the bedroom, Chen Pingjiang was a little confused: "Isn't this your home?"

Ge Mengshi nodded: "Definitely not. You drank so much, how could I dare to take you home? I would have a hard time explaining it to my parents. This is my other house."

When they parted, Ge Mengshi said, "I'll take a half-month break and travel around the country. I'll start work in half a month."

………………

After returning to the company, Chen Pingjiang convened a board meeting.

"Renren's Series A financing plan has officially started."

This short sentence seemed to have magical power, energizing everyone in the company and making them work harder.

Before this, although Renren's valuation was rising every day, there was no active money coming in, so its value could not be priced in the market.

While getting the money, it also means that the capital market is recognizing the value of Renren.

Renren's executives and the first employees who received options were naturally the happiest.

The other employees were also very excited. After all, the more the company developed, the more obvious the benefits it would bring to them.

Not to mention salary, bonuses and options, even if you change jobs in the future, the experience working at Renren will make your resume look better.

Unlike other companies, after getting the money, Renren does not need to explore directions through trial and error. Instead, it uses the money to accelerate development and buy opportunities to grow bigger. It also uses the money to cope with the upcoming social networking site wars and buy a ticket to victory.

With the support of external key resources from investment institutions, Chen Pingjiang can further optimize the strategy, expand Renren's business capabilities, and further promote its advertising business.

The news spread like wildfire, and Renren's company phone and even Chen Pingjiang's personal phone were almost blown up by enthusiastic VC/PE and even individual investors.

SoftBank was the most active, but it was not Masayoshi Son who came in person, but rather it was Xue Cunhe, the founder of SoftBank China.

Just like SoftBank’s previous bold and aggressive style, it opened its mouth to bite off 30% of the shares.

The line card is dead.

Generally speaking, the maximum proportion of a single financing in Round A financing does not exceed 30%. If it exceeds this proportion, it will be detrimental to subsequent financing plans to a certain extent.

In order to maintain the entrepreneurial team's control over the company after subsequent financing, avoid agency problems and reserve shares for subsequent employees, the best ratio for Series A financing is between 10% and 20%.

In response, Chen Pingjiang neither nodded nor shook his head, but just said he would consider it.

In the following days, Chen Pingjiang met with Wu Shangzhi of CDH Investments, Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital, Xiong Xiaoge of IDG and a series of other investors, large and small.

Basically, the first meeting was just for both parties to get to know each other and to test Chen Pingjiang's opinion on the valuation of Renren.

Chen Pingjiang works around the clock, basically meeting with 6-7 investors a day.

Even so, after five days of meetings, there were still forty investors queuing up.

Just after meeting the head of Jinshajiang Venture Capital, Song Xinyue quickly handed over a glass of water.

She was temporarily appointed as Chen Pingjiang's personal assistant, and Wan Yuqian was already recruiting a permanent candidate.

Otherwise, Chen Pingjiang would be too busy to meet with investors one by one to confirm the appointment time.

Chen Pingjiang took the water and drank it all in one gulp, then asked, "Who's next?"

Song Xinyue quickly opened her notebook and read: "3pm, Tencent, Liu Chih-ping."

“Oh? It’s him.” Chen Pingjiang nodded, then sat on the chair and closed his eyes, preparing to meet the future president of Tencent Holdings and chairman of the investment committee.

At 2:50, Liu Chih-Ping arrived as promised.

As soon as they met, both sides looked at each other calmly.

Liu Chih-Ping wears black-framed glasses, has a square face and is well-dressed.

He was quite surprised at Chen Pingjiang's youth. Although he had already read his information, he was still deeply shocked when they met.

"It is said that heroes emerge from youth. Mr. Chen really lives up to this saying." Chen Pingjiang smiled and made a few polite remarks, then invited Liu Chih-ping to sit down.

"Actually, I'm surprised that Mr. Liu can come here."

"Oh? Why is it unexpected?"

Chen Pingjiang looked at Liu Chih-ping deeply, and then smiled and said, "Because I know very well that if I reject Mr. Liu's cooperation today, the Tencent version of grabbing parking spaces may be launched tomorrow."

For a moment, Liu Chih-ping was somewhat surprised by Chen Pingjiang's "frankness" and "directness".

When I first heard this, I thought Chen Pingjiang had some connections within Tencent and got the news in advance.

"That's not true, Mr. Chen. Even if the deal doesn't work out, we still have a bond. Besides, we at Tencent don't plan to develop similar games, because even if we do, the market might already be taken up by Renren."

A real business war is not about treating people to a meal or talking about face and morality. Liu Chih-ping pushed the responsibility without blushing or feeling any pain.

Chen Pingjiang still had a smile on his face and didn't dwell on this topic for long.

Everyone is clear about Tencent’s current style. It will not become more benevolent until after the 3Q war.

As expected by Chen Pingjiang, the two sides broke off the conversation as soon as they met because of the difference in valuation.

Tencent values ​​Renren at RMB 8 million and wants to acquire a 20% stake, which is equivalent to an investment of approximately US$2000 million.

Chen Pingjiang thinks Renren's valuation should be 20 billion.

Liu Chih-ping refused to do it when he heard this. This was too exaggerated.

If calculated based on a valuation of 20 billion, 2000 million US dollars cannot buy back 8% of the shares. With this money, Tencent might as well develop its own products.

"Excuse me, but even the investment institution that has the most confidence in your company would not give an estimate of more than 12 billion. Mr. Chen, do you have no sincerity in negotiating with 20 billion?"

Chen Pingjiang spread his hands and said, "Boss Liu, you are wronging me. It has only been less than a month, and the daily active users of Renren Qiangchewei have reached 290 million. It will definitely exceed 500 million in another month. The number of registered users of Renren has also reached 300 million. The most important thing is that it is now in a period of explosive growth. I think 20 billion is a suitable number."

Liu Chih-Ping laughed dryly and felt that there was no way they could reach an agreement. Chen Ping-Jiang was so confident that he was conceited.

Chen Pingjiang didn't care either.

At present, Renren does not want to be labeled too deeply by factions.

Watching Liu Chih-Ping's leaving back, Chen Pingjiang was already considering whether to take over the agency rights of DNF, intercept Tencent, and snatch a third of its luck.

Compared with other Internet companies, Renren is undoubtedly lucky.

There is no need to prepare a business plan in advance, no need to go north to look for investors, and no need to attend various cocktail parties for roadshows.

All you need to do is sit at home and wait for investors from all walks of life to come to you for individual interviews.

Similar to when Kaixin.com became an instant hit due to “Friends Trading” and was pursued by 80 investment institutions, capital has also shown enough tolerance towards Renren.com.

There is no way, because the data is too good.

In the following days, Chen Pingjiang met with the remaining investors.

Even if the investor did not intend to cooperate, Chen Pingjiang would still receive them very politely.

These are all resources, and there is no harm in meeting and getting to know each other.

After doing all this, at the request of Sequoia Capital's Neil Shen.

Sequoia Capital funded and appointed a due diligence team composed of experts, including well-known lawyers, accountants and financial analysts, to conduct due diligence on Renren before financing.

Renren signed a "confidentiality agreement" with members of the due diligence team.

The relevant departments will then collect all relevant materials together and prepare an index, which is prepared based on the due diligence team's investigation checklist.

In addition, a due diligence room is prepared to store relevant information.

Establish a procedure to allow potential buyer institutions the opportunity to ask additional questions about Renren and obtain copies of disclosable documents in the data room.

(End of this chapter)