Chapter 197 Venture Capital Gang
“Our Series B financing will probably start next month.”

After chatting about investment details in the office for more than two hours, Chen Huiling stopped talking until the sunset dyed the skyline red and suggested, "Let's go have dinner and drinks first."

"Let's go to Geylang. I heard there's a delicious Hainanese chicken rice restaurant there." Xie Jingxing stretched.

Chen Huiling said with a mischievous expression: "Hainanese chicken rice... OK."

"Have you eaten it?" Xie Jingxing asked back pretending to be curious.

Geylang is a place name. Most of the odd-numbered streets are food streets, while some even-numbered streets have many brothels with small pink lights.

Of course, Chen Huiling had never been there, so the two of them told dirty jokes in a relaxed manner and packed up to eat.

The office door was suddenly pushed open, and the girl at the front desk stood at the door, at a loss for words, and stepped aside to make room.

"Hello, Ms. Chen."

A middle-aged man with plump cheeks and wearing a blue long-sleeved business shirt, with the hem of the shirt tucked into his trousers meticulously, walked into the office, bowed slightly and handed over his business card with both hands: "I'm from SoftBank Group's Tokyo headquarters, investment specialist Ma Ming."

"Hello, I don't seem to have received any notification from SoftBank Group." Chen Huiling frowned slightly.

The middle-aged man Ma Ming straightened up and explained, "I'm very sorry, this visit was not planned in the itinerary, and I didn't have time to communicate in advance. If you have plans, please go ahead and do it. It will not be included in the due diligence process."

He looked around the office leisurely. There were several cardboard boxes piled in the corner, a large stack of documents was pressing on the desk, and the bookshelf was only half assembled and looked like it might collapse at any time.

Just like this company, most of the workstations were empty at 5:30 in the afternoon, and employees were frivolously talking about where to go to relax after get off work, without any of the vitality that a startup should have.

The girl at the front desk was quite clever and tried to buy time to pass on the news.

Unfortunately, he is not a simple investment specialist, but a senior MD in charge of the O2O investment business in the entire Asia region at SoftBank headquarters, and he has always been good at surprise due diligence.

This helps to quickly see parts of a startup that may not be in the business plan.

"Congratulations on your new office. It's really rude of you not to bring a gift."

Ma Ming was not worried at all that the frowning female founder in front of him would choose to refuse to receive him. While speaking, he looked at the young man next to him, feeling as if he had seen him somewhere.

Photos of the founding team members in the business plan, or peers from an investment institution?

He continued the stress test with great interest: "It seems that my visit has caused you some inconvenience. Well, next time I come to do a formal due diligence, I will bring a bouquet of flowers to apologize."

"You go ahead and do your work. I'll call you later." Xie Jingxing didn't make things difficult for Chen Huiling.

The Singapore government's sovereign fund is willing to follow up on Grab's new round of financing next month, as well as GGV Capital, which participated in Didi's previous round of financing, and Tiger Global Management of the United States, which became a shareholder of Didi after the merger by holding shares in the original Kuaidi.

Together with his Grapefruit Capital, it is obvious that Chen Bingyao wanted to emulate Liu Qing and form an all-star strategic investment team, so it was natural for him to contact SoftBank Group, one of the top companies in Asia, through family connections.

The reason for starting financing next month is to wait for SoftBank to conduct due diligence.

Now that she was here, she really had no good intentions. Chen Huiling forced a smile to apologize, "Jingxing, I'll come to see you later, don't stand me up."

"No problem, see you tonight."

Xie Jingxing nodded to comfort him.

After confirming that he was from the same industry, Ma Ming asked tentatively out of professional instinct: "Hello, are you also an investor? What's your name?"

"Grapefruit Capital, Xie Jingxing." Xie Jingxing replied patiently.

Ma Ming raised his eyebrows in surprise and extended his hand solemnly: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Xie has made remarkable achievements in investment in recent years. It seems that we need to seriously consider the feasibility of investing in Grab."

"Thanks for the recognition, but you'd better not vote." Xie Jingxing disagreed.

Chen Huiling blinked at him, and Ma Ming was puzzled: "Why do you say that?"

"This way I can get a larger share of the investment." Xie Jingxing laughed.

"Haha, it's just as the rumors say. Mr. Xie is an investor with a unique style." Ma Ming said the nice words for free.

As the situation changes, we are about to enter the stage where investors are sympathetic to each other and will follow suit as long as you invest, forget about due diligence.

Xie Jingxing's smile faded, and he said seriously: "Masayoshi Son is the biggest advocate of monopoly in this era. He believes that if he can monopolize the market, he can win everything. He rushed into an industry with a lot of money, transformed the founder who talked about ideals into someone who only talked about capital operations, and deformed the market."

Ma Ming and Chen Huiling's faces changed instantly and they didn't dare to respond for a moment.

“That’s what a lot of people think of me.”

Xie Jingxing paused for a moment with a calm expression: "There is an old Chinese saying that there can't be two tigers in one mountain, so if possible, I really don't want to enter the same industry with you, even if we are just friends."

"But if it has to be this way, I sincerely hope that I am the lead investor. Huiling is my friend, and I want to support her as much as possible so that she can always be full of entrepreneurial ideals."

Chen Huiling was speechless and secretly cursed Ma Ming for being such a jerk for launching a surprise attack at this time. Now the problem arose: who would lead the investment?

Under normal circumstances, everyone knows that SoftBank has greater influence in Asia, and it is understandable that SoftBank is interested in leading the investment, but can it really do something that would slap Xie Jingxing in the face at this moment?
"…Last month, the chairman of Alibaba Group went to Neon to meet with Mr. Sun. During the conversation, he mentioned you and spoke highly of you. I agree with him now."

Ma Ming nodded slightly while carefully studying the words.

Venture capital is an industry that requires accumulation. Connections, experience, knowledge and other conditions naturally limit talented people. Xie Jingxing's existence is even more valuable.

To be frank, Grab's Series B financing is only a project worth tens of millions of dollars, which is nothing within SoftBank, and he personally is not optimistic about it.

In that case, he chose to give up this game.

——No investment. If Grab is really a high-quality project, it will always actively ask SoftBank for investment in its subsequent growth stage.

Ma Ming made a quick decision: "I won't bother you any more today. I will postpone my trip and come to do the due diligence tomorrow."

"I didn't expect that our first meeting would be in this form. Please help convey to Mr. Masayoshi Son that I am very much looking forward to meeting him in Southeast Asia." Xie Jingxing shook his head regretfully.

Ma Ming lowered his head and suppressed his emotions: "Definitely!"

He had no right to respond or make harsh remarks on behalf of Mr. Sun. Perhaps his appearance today was a bit casual and he should be more humble.

Ma Ming silently summed up himself and said goodbye. The receptionist girl, who had been standing at the door the whole time, had tears in her eyes.

Chen Huiling treated Xie Jingxing with the same gentleness and care, and treated her subordinates with the same fierceness and care.

"Bingyao's family is the general distributor of most of Japan's auto companies in Southeast Asia and is familiar with Japan Capital."

"Neighboring venture capital firms have only just started in recent years. They invest in Southeast Asia in groups, and wherever they go, locusts are everywhere."

The two sentences reached her ears at the same time. The girl at the front desk came to her senses and looked at Chen Huiling cautiously. After receiving her permission with her eyes, she quickly closed the door and left.

"In fact, SoftBank is not very willing to invest in us."

Chen Huiling was not interested. Not everyone wanted to take SoftBank's money. Xie Jingxing said self-deprecatingly, "You make it seem awkward for me to slander my peers."

"It's just a consensus. Don't forget that I used to work at McKinsey. The Japanese venture capital mafia is very famous in Southeast Asia." Chen Huiling said sullenly.

Xie Jingxing didn't comment: "Let's go drink."

If the Chinese venture capital industry is imperfect, then the Japanese venture capital industry only has one Masayoshi Son and his SoftBank Capital empire.

Their style is known to be radical, and they have taken advantage of the dividends of the Internet era all over the world; precisely because of their radicalism and strength, their M&A business is a mess, such as Alibaba's acquisition of Yahoo.

But apparently this did not teach him a lesson. A guy who came out of nowhere was able to put so much pressure on the founder with just a business card.

In recent years, Neon Capital has turned its attention to Southeast Asia, following the lead of its godfather Masayoshi Son in investing together. Often, there is a Japanese venture capital firm on the list of shareholders of start-ups.

After only two or three rounds of financing, this startup will be eroded by Japanese capital, just like the Jewish consortium that is pervasive.

In his previous life, when Xie Jingxing graduated and returned to China to take control of Taihe, due to the decline in domestic venture capital enthusiasm and the rise of the Southeast Asian market, he had a lot of dealings with Japanese counterparts, and he had taken advantage of them and suffered losses.

If you want to control the Southeast Asian Internet industry in this lifetime, it is even more impossible to make money through harmony, so just try your best first.

The first meeting was a victory for Grab, and SoftBank will have to bleed some money if it wants to come in.

…………

Smoke and Mirrors.

A restaurant and bar located near the National Gallery Singapore. The outdoor seats offer a panoramic view of the city center, and the colorful and dazzling city scenery at night is in full view.

With the breeze blowing and two cocktails down her throat, Chen Huiling sang softly to the music: "Who will I meet and what kind of conversation will we have~"

“A friend once told me that Stefanie Sun is the biggest star in Singapore,” Xie Jingxing said jokingly.

Chen Huiling hummed lazily, "JJ Lin is not bad either."

"If JJ Lin's concert tickets and Stefanie Sun's concert tickets were placed in front of you, who would you choose?" Xie Jingxing put his hands in his pockets.

Chen Huiling's eyes lit up instantly: "Don't take two concert tickets out of your pocket."

"Do you think I'm Doraemon?"

Xie Jingxing complained that JJ Lin did not hold a concert this year, but Stefanie Sun has one next month, so she could go and watch it just in time for the B round of financing to be completed.

Chen Huiling's face turned dark red, and she almost blurted out, "Is this a formal invitation?", but the words circled around her lips and were washed back into her stomach by the wine.

“Ma’am, your Singapore Sling.”

A handsome young man with oily hair and gold-rimmed glasses brought a glass of orange-red cocktail at the right time. He did not leave in a hurry. He stood by the table and said slowly: "Hello, sir and madam. I am a new bartender. Your feedback is very helpful to me."

“It’s great, the flavors of the different fruits are well balanced.”

The Singapore Sling requires multiple base liquors, which is time-consuming and laborious, and is not the type that bartenders like. Chen Huiling generously praised it.

"Would the gentleman like to try it?"

The bartender took out a straw from the tray and handed it over. Chen Huiling's face became more and more rosy. Xie Jingxing said casually: "Did you only filter this glass of wine once?"

“Of course, filtering twice will affect the dense taste of the foam on the surface of the wine.” The bartender is very professional.

Xie Jing Xing smiled: "I'm allergic to bubbles."

"?"

The bartender was speechless and thought to himself, "Brother, it would be more convincing if you say you are allergic to egg white."

Although the foam of the Singapore Sling is not made with egg white, it seems that no one is allergic to the foam. Chen Huiling unconsciously lowered her head and lifted the hair by her ears to hide her emotions.

"Really? Let me show you."

Xie Jingxing simply picked up the wine glass in front of her and took a big sip, then turned his head and sprayed the bartender with the wine.

"I'm so embarrassed that I vomited after drinking it." He explained sincerely.

Chen Huiling didn't have time to stop him. She looked at Xie Jingxing, then at the bartender whose mouth was twitching, and had to quickly take out her wallet: "Sorry, we will compensate you for your loss."

"There's a mall nearby. I'll take him to buy some clothes. Wait for me for ten minutes and I'll be right back."

Xie Jingxing wiped the corners of his mouth and stood up. The bartender followed him and went to buy clothes.

Chen Huiling didn't come to her senses until the two figures disappeared from her sight. If she was allergic to foam, then did that mean she couldn't drink beer?
She stared blankly at the wine glass in front of her with red lipstick marks on it, raised her hand and slapped her forehead hard. Today was really a day of ups and downs.

…………

"Gululu."

Two bottles of beer fell from the street retail cabinet. The bartender took off his vest and put it on his shoulders. He unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and rolled them up to his elbows. He opened the beer and took a sip. "I'm creating opportunities for you."

"We are friends." Xie Jingxing shrugged.

The bartender said with a playful smile: "If she had whiter skin, bigger breasts, a perkier butt, a perkier butt..."

"Boom."

Xie Jingxing raised Los Angeles' elbow, and the bartender's whole body suddenly hit the retail cabinet, shaking it. He raised his hands above his head in a surrender gesture: "It's just a joke, don't be angry."

"Do you have a sister?"

Xie Jingxing opened his beer and took a sip, then walked forward.

The bartender said without hesitation: "To be honest, before I came to Singapore, I called my parents and asked them to give me a sister as soon as possible, or adopt one to build a good emotional foundation. You can wait for ten or eight years and you can use it. If you are really anxious, three to five years will be enough."

"Remember, you weren't like this the last time we met."

Xie Jingxing said faintly: "Cheng Sen, pretending to be stupid will only make me look down on you even more."

"I'm really glad you thought of me."

Cheng Sen is a kid who runs an asset transfer channel business in the Middle East by borrowing a charity foundation, a white glove rolling around in the mud.

The first one who came to the door was last year. He was taken to Maoshan by Xie Jingxing and beaten for more than ten minutes. He performed a ghost-catching drama. Since then, no one who is not afraid of death has come to the door again.

I received a message from Xie Jingxing this morning and immediately came to Singapore alone from Dubai.

(End of this chapter)