Global Monopoly of Technology

The two sides negotiated the first meeting, but the specific financing will wait until a week later, because the launch of a new round of financing requires consultation with previous investors.

In this regard, Bluestar Technology said that there is no problem.

After Zhang Xuhao sent Pang Lei away, several young co-founders screamed excitedly in the office, and finally released the previously suppressed excitement.

Anyway, there are no outsiders.

After calming down his inner excitement, Zhang Xuhao immediately called the previous investment institution and explained the general content of the matter.

The previous VCs agreed without hesitation when they heard the news. Without him, although Bluestar Technology asked for 40% of the equity in one go, the original shareholders must have their shares diluted by a large amount, but the overall valuation has soared from nearly 100 million US dollars. to $750 million.

The more important reason is that the investment risk has plummeted directly, because the brand of Bluestar Technology is too loud, and it is also the first-level traffic entrance of WeChat.

There is no doubt that with the entry of Bluestar Technology, the future of Ele.me is brighter than ever.

After Zhang Xuhao obtained the attitudes of all shareholders, he confirmed that it was correct and contacted the strategic investment department of Bluestar Technology the next day. Pang Lei directly gave him a positive answer. The staff of Bluestar Technology will come to visit in five days. Sign the contract and transfer $300 million in cash directly to Ele.me's company account on the same day.

With this money, Zhang Xuhao believes that the company has enough ammunition that it will not need to consider Series E financing in the next three or four years.

It is best to realize the IPO after the D round of financing, but he also knows that this is basically hopeless, after all, such as Bluestar Technology, the IPO can be realized after the C round of financing, and the IPO is more than 5 billion US dollars. Yes, it is an extremely rare example in the history of global Internet development.

Throughout the history of the development of the Internet industry in the world, in the past ten years, only two companies have achieved a brilliant record of IPOs that have caused a sensation in the world, and now they are both well-known technology giants in the world.

One is Google, whose 2004 IPO raised $2.7 billion.

The other is Bluestar Technology, whose IPO in 2006 created a financing miracle of US$5.6 billion.

In the first decade of the new century, Bluestar Technology and Google were hailed by the world as "Geminis" in the global Internet industry. In this decade, nothing has been more shining than these two newly emerging Internet companies. .

After Zhang Xuhao ended the phone call with Pang Lei, he sent an email inside the company,

Ele.me currently has 1,283 employees.

The content of this email is roughly to say that the company has negotiated a 1.88 billion (300 million US dollars) Series D financing, with a valuation of 4.7 billion (750 million US dollars). sensation.

Zhang Xuhao sent this email to stabilize the military. After all, the company is in the start-up stage. Even if it has prospects, it is based on the premise of drawing a big cake. The employees are worried that the company will not be able to raise money and even pay wages.

The news quickly spread from the inside of Ele.me, and it attracted huge attention in the industry for a while, including competitors and many investment institutions.

This is the largest single financing case in the Internet industry since 2013, so it is no wonder that it has caused a sensation in the industry.

Everyone is curious about who is so rude and inhuman, but Zhang Xuhao did not disclose the investor's information in the email, but said "the investor is the most embarrassed investment institution and the top Internet company in China", and the specific details will be It will be officially announced on Tuesday, February 19.

This news has also made Ele.me the most popular new star in the current circle, and many media and industry insiders have begun to analyze why the online food ordering business is so favored by capital.

Before the industry could digest the news, on February 16, the Internet technology circle broke out another large amount of financing**, which directly broke the scale of Ele.me’s financing.

Meituan held a media conference on the 16th. At the press conference, founder Wang Xin officially announced the company's entry into the food delivery industry. At the same time, he announced that it had completed the C round of financing of 700 million US dollars, and the US group was valued at 3 billion US dollars.

The last round of financing was two years ago. At that time, it was valued at 220 million US dollars. Now it has become a unicorn company, and a major information leaked at the press conference made Meituan become the current industry. Focus.

That is, the C round of financing was led by Bluestar Technology Group, with Ali, Pan Atlantic Investment, and Sequoia Capital following.

Only Bluestar Technology has spent 500 million US dollars, which is called inhuman.

But the most important thing is that the four words of Bluestar Technology have too much influence.

With the passage of time, on February 19, Ele.me finally disclosed the information of the investor, and the investor was Bluestar Technology Group.

By this day, the industry has changed from being curious and surprised at the beginning to sure.

Because the news of Meituan’s C round of financing was swiped a few days ago, and the time was pushed forward a few days, Zhang Xuhao disclosed the information claiming that the investor is the most embarrassing investment institution and the top Internet company in China.

After thinking about it, plus Meituan’s C-round financing announced its entry into the food delivery industry at the same time, Bluestar Technology is undoubtedly the most suitable object for this sentence.

In late February, media news broke that Ali once again led the investment in Dianping and completed the E round of financing. The financing amount was not announced to the public, and the co-investors included Sequoia Capital, Tengxun and Bluestar Technology.

Just entering March, the Internet broke the financing news again. Didi Dache completed a B round of financing of 25 million US dollars. The investor was Bluestar Technology.

In less than three days, Kuaidi Dache also announced that it had completed a $1,500 Series A financing, led by Ali and followed by Jingwei Venture Capital.

No one would have thought that entering the new year, the domestic Internet technology circle had such an exciting start, and the two domestic Internet giants began to frantically "staking the field". In just one month, the two Internet giants frequently shot.

Affected by this good news, the big A shares of the Science and Technology Innovation Board and the Internet concept stocks directly ushered in the three consecutive daily limit.

The market and the entire Internet industry suddenly became hot, which was unexpected, but also reasonable.

People look back on the strategic restructuring of Bluestar Technology Group last year, which is already good news. The reason why the A-shares were not stimulated at that time was because everyone thought that Bluestar Technology would be hit hard by Wall Street's airdrop agencies.

Afterwards, Bluestar Technology won a big victory, and the bears left the market sadly, but the entire market did not fluctuate greatly and entered a stable period.

After all, time has also entered the New Year, and everyone is in a hurry for the New Year.

In mid-to-late February after the new year, the top Internet giants in China are throwing money wildly, and the cold winter of capital in the Internet industry in recent years seems to disappear overnight, directly igniting the investment fever of the entire industry.

It is worth mentioning that the real estate giant Wanda Group has also joined this investment boom and began to take action in the Internet industry, which is likely to stage a "Three Kingdom War".

As time went on, in March, more positive news stimulated the clear signal that the big A shares entered a bull market from a bear market.

That is, the concept of "Internet +" has become a national strategy.

During this period, the broader market has been crowned the world for three consecutive years. The Shanghai index fell by 7.15%, the Shenzhen index fell by 11.58%, the small and medium-sized board index rose by 18.45%, and the ChiNext index rose by 92.81%, of which 80% The increase in % is all set in the past two weeks.

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Hangzhou, Ali headquarters.

"You catch a younger brother, and I will catch another. Soldiers will fight against soldiers, and the generals will fight against you. If we go on like this, we will not be able to compete against Bluestar Technology." Mr. Zhang, the Xiaoyaozi who attended the meeting, said with concern.

"This is not a matter of our final decision, nor is it a matter of not being able to fight, but a matter of having to fight." Mr. Ma took a deep breath and sighed: "Look, today's news broke again. , Jingdong announced that it has completed a $1 billion Series E financing, and the investor is Bluestar Technology, and it is an exclusive investment of $1 billion, Luo Sheng has already burned the war into my hinterland."

The executives who attended the meeting were also quite dignified. In the past few years, Ali's managers were very puzzled, why Bluestar Technology fought against Teng Xun and against Baidu, that is, they did not play with Ali.

The whole thing seems to look down on e-commerce. Some people in the industry make fun of it, but this is also the reason why Ali can rise.

In fact, it wasn't that Luo Sheng didn't want to, but that his energy was limited.

At that time, Bluestar Technology's focus was almost always on the international market, especially the North American market, because after 2010, as the manufacturing scale of Huaguo became the world's largest, the old beauty's attitude began to change, and then I wanted to expand globally. Developed markets will struggle, especially in North America.

The mainland market has never been Luo Sheng's focus before. After all, in his eyes, the mainland market can be taken anytime, and he is so confident.

Although the time is a little late, but if you do your housekeeping skills "social" well, the rest will be done, and the cost of late entry must have soared, but these years of hard work in the international market are also earned. The pours are full, not bad for this increase in cost.

The problem that can be solved by throwing money is basically not a problem for Luo Sheng.

In the conference room, Mr. Ma, who was sitting in chief, spoke with a smile and a relaxed tone: "You don't have to make it look like you are facing a big enemy. This time the competitors are indeed very terrifying, but no matter how bad the situation is, it will not be worse than that. It was even worse when the IT bubble burst around 2001, when the company almost died."

Ma was always a master speaker, and he was good at boosting morale.

"Don't look at Bluestar Technology's arrogance, but the big ship is also a big problem. It is very difficult to turn the rudder, and it is difficult to adjust the attitude. Bluestar Technology itself also has big problems. The debt burden of the company is the highest in the company's history, and each of the three strategies is more expensive than the other, not to mention that we are not the number one opponent of Bluestar Technology."

"Bluestar Technology's number one opponent is the group of tech giants in Silicon Valley, so it is impossible to concentrate on competing with Ali unless Luo Sheng is willing to give up the entire national market and hide in the mainland, but this young man will never shrink in the mainland. The size and scale of the company, the company's philosophy, and the expectations of the people that the company carries do not allow Luo Sheng to be a shrinking tortoise."

"Look at Bluestar's cloud computing business, the data centers in North America would rather burn billions of dollars each year to maintain vacancies and not sell them to Google. This is an obvious signal, so Luo Sheng can spare a lot of money. One of the energy to fight against my Ali is very good. Why does he invest in Ele.me, Meituan, Volkswagen, Didi, Jingdong, etc., and so on? I will end in person, so I have to win over a group of young brothers from the periphery."

When Mr. Ma said this, the managers who attended the meeting nodded involuntarily, and their confidence suddenly rose a lot.

It’s true that Bluestar Technology’s volume is indeed three or four times that of Ali, but the opponents it has to face may be thirty or forty times that of Ali.

Mr. Ma added: "Of course, tactically, we still have to pay enough attention to our competitors. In 2013 or 2014 next year, the group company should draw up a prospectus and start the IPO listing plan. This year and next year will be the best for Ali. At the time point, just take advantage of the current good situation to complete the IPO and raise a lot of money, and only with sufficient ammunition can we have the confidence to not be afraid of the opponent's contest!"

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