Chapter 154 Mr. Xie collects tolls
Everyone accompanied Xie Jingxing to visit the site carefully. When it was almost evening, they returned to the hotel to have dinner and summarize.

During the period, he did not show any excessive concern for Xu Nuo, and talked a lot about product function development and new round of financing.

Two months ago, Ele.me raised only 3000 million US dollars in its Series C round of financing. Now that the battle has started and money has been poured in, the data has risen accordingly. It is only natural that it will start its Series D financing as soon as possible.

According to the private agreement between Xie Jingxing and Pony Ma, this round of investment should be led by Tencent, followed by Xiyou, and then a few other investors can be brought in.

"Have you calculated how much money you want to get in this round of financing?"

After returning to the hotel suite and ordering room service to deliver a table of food, he got straight to the point: "Tencent can contribute 5%, and you can bring in some other investors, and Grapefruit can make up the rest."

"Let's push forward our strategic plan. The first $1 million raised in this round is enough, and we can't take more than that." Zhang Xuhao simply stated his attitude.

In the C round of financing, Sequoia Capital took away 23% of the equity. Ele.me was valued at just over 1 million US dollars. In this round of financing of 30 million US dollars, at least % of the equity must be given up.

From the perspective of start-up development, with no outrageous growth in performance in just two months, the valuation has skyrocketed, making it a darling of capital.

But from the perspective of actual control of the company, diluting nearly half of the equity in two months is the limit that all entrepreneurs can tolerate and the limit that the main investors can bear.

If this limit is exceeded, both parties will be stuffed to death. This is an unspoken understanding among everyone. Xie Jingxing has no objection and he has no intention of asking Ele.me to change its name.

The prerequisites have been agreed upon, with a maximum of US$1 million in financing and the transfer of approximately 30% of the equity stake.

Zhang Xuhao took a breath and continued, "I don't want Tencent to come in for this round of financing. Taking their money will force us to take sides, which is too uncomfortable for us."

"Excluding Tencent, who else is suitable to lead this round of financing?" Xie Jingxing did not comment.

Zhang Xuhao unconsciously exchanged glances with Kang Jia and said, "We've had a good chat with Brother Tao recently. I wonder if we can get Dianping to lead the investment and Xiyou to follow suit to support us."

"You have the idea that you can indirectly enjoy Tencent's resources without having to take sides, but in fact, many of the resources Tencent can provide you cannot be achieved through Dianping."

Xie Jingxing reminded calmly: "Besides, you are fighting with Taodiandian. Even if you don't stand on the same side, Alibaba doesn't seem to like you."

Zhang Xuhao suppressed his surprise and said, "There are pros and cons. Without Tencent's support, we can fight or stop. But after taking Tencent's money, we have no choice."

"hehe."

Xie Jing Xing couldn't help but chuckle, shook his head silently, picked up the bowl and started eating.

Having said that, Kang Jia wanted to break up with the slightly sarcastic and harsh smile. The company's cash was flowing out like water and the company was extremely hungry for funds.

If Ele.me refuses to take Tencent's money, then other investors will firmly stand on the side of the management to look for other investors. Even if Xie Jingxing turns into a dictator, it will be useless.

What’s more, Dianping is indeed a very high-quality investor, and no one can find fault with it for rejecting Tencent for this reason!

Ever since Zhang Xuhao had made a secret appointment with Zhang Tao last time, he created a WeChat group with all the core executives of both sides in it, discussing various business ideas and cooperation possibilities, and chatted out hundreds of message records every day.

After continuous communication, Dianping agreed to lead the investment in this round of financing for Ele.me with a value of US$5000 to 8000 million.

According to the brothers' plan, Xiyou would be given a 2% share in this round of financing, which would be worthy of Xie Jingxing's support during this period.

Oh, what are you pretending to be?!

Kang Jia's pent-up anger rushed into his cerebellum, and he blurted out, "Mr. Xie, if you have any ideas, just say it directly. There's no need to be sarcastic."

"I tried to get Sequoia to participate in this round of financing for you, but they refused. Do you know why?"

Xie Jingxing answered slowly: "The valuation is too high."

After considering for many days, Jim finally asked him to meet before returning to the United States. He politely refused in person and said that he had no intention of entering the domestic area and offending Shen Nanpeng. Ultimately, the benefits were not enough.

In his eyes, Ele.me is worth $1 million because Meituan, Alibaba, and Baidu have successively entered the food delivery industry.

Otherwise, in his eyes, this grassroots startup with a poor entrepreneurial team background, many management problems, confused products and various low-level minor flaws is worthless. He would rather spend 1 million to invest in Meituan than spend 5000 million to invest in Ele.me.

This is also the evaluation of Ele.me by many venture capital institutions in the industry. There are very few high-quality investors like Tencent and Xiyou who are willing to provide strong support.

Dianping is certainly one of them, however...

"You must have talked to Zhang Tao for a long time, right? Didn't he tell you the details of Dianping's last round of financing?" Xie Jingxing asked in confusion.

The expression mixed with a bit of disappointment made Kang Jia's heart tighten and he realized something. He suddenly turned his head to look at Zhang Xuhao, who had a red and pale face and opened his mouth but could not make a sound.

"I'm done eating, you guys take your time." Xu Nuo quickly stood up and hastily avoided them.

Song Anli glanced at Xie Jingxing, placed a small stack of peeled shrimps next to him, and followed him away considerately.

After all, they are the founders of the company, so we have to give them some face and protect their fragile hearts.

Dianping paid more than 4 million US dollars for a total of 27% of the shares in its last round of financing. Zhang Tao even sold his own old shares to satisfy the appetite of Grapefruit Capital.

This means that they will not be able to initiate a new round of financing for a long time, and they are about to launch a money-burning competition in the group buying market to strangle Meituan at the same time.

In this case, investing $8000 million in cash in Ele.me is a radical strategy for Dianping's long-term strategic planning.

This is not what many investors want to see, including Xie Jingxing and Xiao Ma Ge.

The most important thing is that as long as they don’t want to see it, it will be very difficult to achieve!
27% of the shares, plus the shareholding that Xiyou took over from Taihe Capital, has just exceeded the 33% safety control line.

If Zhang Tao ignores the "good intentions" of investors and tries to force investment in Ele.me, it would be more practical for him to first consider how to implement the equity reform separation system.

"If you really want to have in-depth cooperation with Dianping, count them as one of the investors in this round of financing and give them a 20% share." Xie Jingxing said calmly.

Zhang Xuhao said in a dry voice: "The money in our account can last for a while."

"I can help you find bridge financing if necessary."

Xie Jing Xing sighed and advised: "Keep a normal mind, take a long-term view, go back and think carefully about how to choose friends. What is certain is that neither Tencent nor I are your enemies."

"……OK, thanks."

Zhang Xuhao clenched his fists, which were hidden by the table, and uttered a few words through gritted teeth.

He thought he had the courage and forbearance to form alliances and dignitaries that lasted for more than a month, but after all the twists and turns, it turned out to be a joke. This reminded him of Wang Xing who was furious and swearing a few days ago.

An out-and-out capital gangster, perhaps it was a mistake for Xiyou to enter the game from the beginning. Facing Xie Jingxing, he didn't even have the qualifications to fight to the death.

The current money-burning war was originally a great opportunity for him to force Xie Jingxing out of the company for this round of financing. Unless he saw Ele.me die, he would let Dianping lead the investment. During the meal, the two poles reversed. Xie Jingxing stood at the end and announced, "You don't have the option of Dianping. The final right of interpretation belongs to me."

As he said, after losing Dianping, they couldn't find a second strategic investor better than Tencent. Unless they watched Ele.me die, they had no choice but to let Tencent lead the investment.

Zhang Xuhao was forced into a dead end by the trap he set. Now he should consider how to get Tencent to lead the investment. As for Zhang Tao, who set him up, he just learned his lesson...

Xie Jingxing was not very happy after getting what he wanted, and he lowered his expectations for Zhang Xuhao and his friends again.

The resistance to him had been suppressed for so long, thinking that it would be a big deal, but it turned out to be a big deal, so that he had to do it alone, handling everything from financing to strategic and tactical play, making him seem so powerful.

On the other hand, Cheng Wei, apart from making a daring trip to the 318 event, does not have to worry about how to run the company. He is truly a role model for a founder.

【Let’s have a drink when we have time. 】

After seeing off Zhang Xuhao and Kang Jia, who were hanging their heads and deeply immersed in autism, Xie Jingxing sent a message to Cheng Wei with deep emotion.

They chatted for a while to enhance their relationship, and then took a small stack of shrimps to the mini bar, where Song Anli and Xu Nuo were having a drink.

He swaggered and sat between the two of them and said, "Let Tang Man come over to hand over the business."

"Have you finished talking to Zhang Xuhao?" Song Anli confirmed.

"No, they are both in a bad state and can't listen to me. Let Tang Man talk to them later."

Xie Jingxing shrugged and said thoughtfully: "I am beginning to doubt whether they can lead Ele.me to the end."

"Do you want me to go and study with Mr. Liu for a few days?" Song Anli volunteered without any surprise.

In fact, according to her observation, Xie Jingxing did not trust Zhang Xuhao much from the beginning to the end, so the merger and acquisition between Didi and Kuaidi during their frequent contacts was an excellent example.

Maybe in the end Ele.me will imitate Kuaidi and make peace with Meituan, Baidu or one of its arch-rivals.

While the two were talking, Xu Nuo tried to avoid him again, but Xie Jingxing made a downward gesture to signal her not to move.

"On the takeout side, Meituan didn't react, while Taodiandian reacted too much. Just follow the routine and wait until the next stage of the promotion plan is launched."

He paused for a moment and then said, "In addition, the layout of logistics and distribution is also very important."

“So this business is related to our products?”

Xu Nuo implied that if it was okay, please stop saying it. She was just a small product manager and she couldn't bear to know too much.

"It's okay, but I hope it has something to do with you."

Xie Jingxing said as he picked up the peeled shrimp and fed it to Song Anli: "You talk to her, I'm going to take a shower."

"It's Yunhe Logistics. Mr. Xie thinks that apart from the competition between Ele.me and Taodiandian, it would be more suitable for you to switch to Yunhe Logistics."

Song Anli's cheeks turned pink, and she licked the corner of her mouth with the tip of her tongue. The sweetness of the shrimps passed across her lips and teeth, slightly diluting the sourness.

That day in Hangzhou, Xie Jingxing took Xu Nuo to a bar alone for a drink, and she and Zhang Xuhao went to meet a founder.

——Kuai Jiaqi, who holds a bachelor’s degree in logistics engineering from Tongji University and a master’s degree in logistics engineering from MIT, has worked for top companies such as McKinsey and was also a senior executive at Anjuke in its early entrepreneurial stages.

His resume and background are quite impressive. He has a business plan for "Dada Crowdsourcing", which mainly deals in third-party labor services in the field of logistics and distribution. In a sense, he is a contractor.

There are similar companies in the market. This morning, Xie Jingxing took them to meet another crowdsourcing company called "Quhuo".

80% of this company's business comes from accepting orders from food delivery platforms. Based on this, it can be judged that as the intensity of competition in the food delivery market rises sharply, the self-operated logistics and distribution businesses of various platforms will inevitably not be able to keep up with the growth rate of the market.

In other words, the platforms do not have enough self-employed riders, so competition between platforms has shifted from the customer/merchant side to the intermediate delivery link.

At one command, 800 riders came to invest in the logistics and distribution crowdsourcing industry, which is a must-fight place in the next stage. Xie Jingxing's idea is very simple, one word, invest!

Thanks to a week-long battle in Hangzhou, the average daily order volume of Ele.me, the leader in the food delivery industry, has barely exceeded 10 orders so far, and this tiny market supports 80% of the business volume of "Quhuo Crowdsourcing".

To put it another way, Quhuo Crowdsourcing is the leading company in today's logistics and distribution crowdsourcing industry. It can be said that the entire logistics crowdsourcing industry has just started and is entirely driven by the takeaway industry.

Therefore, Xie Jingxing is fully capable of imitating Shen Nanpeng and investing in all the promising companies in the industry.

In the future, Quhuo successfully landed on the Nasdaq and rang the bell with a market share of less than 1% in the logistics crowdsourcing industry.

Let’s have a beautiful dream. If Yunhe Logistics controls 10% of the market share, how will it enter the secondary market?
Cold chain transportation is far more than long-distance transportation. It is more about point-to-point intercity transportation and even the last three kilometers of local life delivery. Yunhe Logistics has more than 2000 small refrigerated trucks and tens of thousands of grassroots logistics delivery personnel.

The logistics system that Zhang Xuhao was drooling over was too extravagant to be used only to support Meituan. Xie Jingxing wanted to build Yunshan Group's own local life logistics infrastructure network around this dragon-slaying sword.

Whether it is Meituan or Baidu, when they find that the industry's growth rate is far beyond expectations and they are suffering from insufficient manpower, and suddenly look back and see the tributaries of Yunhe River covering every street in every city across the country, I believe Wang Xing's expression must be very interesting.

Fresh food retail, community group buying, live streaming e-commerce, friends and enemies alike can realize their visions through this highway, and they only need to pay a small toll to Mr. Xie.

For example, Xu Nuo’s work experience ranges from Taodiandian to Didi Chengxin Youxuan, and he has been working in the local life field for more than ten years.

Yunhe needs to reserve such talents. It doesn’t matter if they are a little immature for the time being. They can be placed in Ele.me for training and growth first.

It won’t be long before Xie Jingxing conducts a few rounds of purges on Yunhe, and then he will have the opportunity to take her back and train her personally.

"Yunhe is a traditional logistics company, and its local life business is currently blank. Put it into your career plan, and your future career height should be satisfactory to you." Song Anli concluded slowly.

Xu Nuo frowned and thought for a long time: "This is a very long-term business plan, which may take ten or twenty years to realize... Sorry, my knowledge is not enough to support me to see that far... I may have to..."

"It's okay, please go ahead." Song Anli made a gesture of invitation.

"What?" Xu Nuo was stunned.

"The sound of water has quieted down."

Song Anli raised her chin towards the bathroom: "He has shoulder pain recently and needs a massage."

"I'm very sorry, I will seriously consider it." Xu Nuo was speechless.

Song Anli picked up the wine glass, took a sip and said sincerely: "It doesn't matter. I hope you can achieve your life plan at Ele.me."

(End of this chapter)