Chapter 279: 500 Million U.S. Dollars! Liu Zhiping: Everyone Else Doesn

Hangcheng, Jin Sha Hall by West Lake, lush front garden.

Chen Yansen strode forward, followed closely by Gao Weilin, Cheng Weixing, and Song Yuncheng, along with six experienced financial and legal staff.

Regarding the valuation of Kuai's Series B funding, though every institution submitted a quote, coordinating equity distribution and aligning long-term interests among all parties still requires a thorough and comprehensive negotiation.

Just as he reached the banquet hall entrance, Chen Yansen saw Ma Liyun outside.

At the same moment, Ma Liyun also saw him.

Both men's faces tightened, then they exchanged a smile.

As expected, Ma Liyun was a pure businessman; as long as there remained any interest entanglement between Senlian Capital and Mama Ali, he would never break ties with him.

Besides, he had merely refused to join Cainiao Logistics—nowhere near enough to earn the e-commerce giant's grudge.

Take Ding Lei as an example: NetEase and Mama Ali had far greater conflicts, yet when they met by chance at a bar last time, Ma Liyun still greeted him proactively.

Seven years later, Mama Ali spent another two billion U. S. dollars to acquire NetEase's Kaola.

This proves Ma Liyun's principle: no personal ties, only interests.

"Congratulations, President Chen, Pinbei has surpassed JD in daily active users and sales data," Ma Liyun hesitated slightly, then stepped forward and smiled.

"Thank you, President Ma. Compared to Taobao, Pinbei still has much room for improvement," Chen Yansen replied with a faint smile.

Ma Liyun's remark was essentially saying: I've noticed Pinbei's threat to Taobao.

But Chen Yansen didn't care—business always has competitors.

Every niche commercial track is like a thousand-group battle, with thousands upon thousands of competitors; only by defeating most of them can one establish a foothold in the industry and earn the right to share in the spoils.

Even Mama Ali itself first defeated Huicong and eBay, then JD, before becoming the dominant force in China's e-commerce industry.

But after excluding Pinbei, JD, Suning, Gome, Dangdang, and Yixun, there remain over a thousand competing e-commerce websites in the domestic market.

Every moment, they vie with Mama Ali for market share.

Can Ma Liyun possibly fight them all?

"The burn-to-claim-market strategy is too capital-intensive. Only five months have passed since Series A funding, and 90 million U. S. dollars is nearly gone. President Chen, Kuai's expansion pace must accelerate, or rivals will catch up."

Ma Liyun smiled, not taking Chen Yansen's words to heart, instead shifting the conversation to Kuai's marketing rhythm.

"Don't worry, President Ma. I have a clear plan," Chen Yansen replied.

The current daily promotional cost of over ten million U. S. dollars is indeed unbearable for all investors.

First, Li Yanhong refused to negotiate; second, Chen Yansen refused to negotiate.

In fact, Ma Liyun had already communicated in advance with Zhu Xiaohu, Yu Heng, and others: they could endure at most one more month; if Kuai and Didi still hadn't determined a winner by then, they would force negotiations to end the subsidy war.

"President Ma, President Chen, why are you both standing at the door?"

At that moment, Zhou Shouzhi and a middle-aged man in a light gray pinstripe suit walked over together.

"Who is this?" Chen Yansen turned, sizing up the man, and asked Zhou Shouzhi.

"President Chen, pleasure to meet you! I'm Cai Yongjin, General Manager of Goldman Sachs Asia. I previously communicated with your Mr. Gao Weilin by phone."

Cai Yongjin shook Chen Yansen's right hand with a smile and introduced himself.

"Mr. Cai, I've long heard of your reputation. Let's go inside and chat at leisure."

As Chen Yansen spoke, he quietly observed the man.

Cai Yongjin was in his early fifties, wearing rimless glasses, his gaze sharp and piercing; having held the position of General Manager of Goldman Sachs Asia for over a decade as a Chinese national, his capabilities were evident.

"No problem."

Cai Yongjin nodded, then exchanged brief pleasantries with Ma Liyun and Gao Weilin.

As they walked and chatted, they stepped into a luxurious, exquisitely decorated banquet hall.

Yu Heng from Huake Capital and Zhu Xiaohu from Jin Sha Venture Capital immediately rose upon seeing Cai Yongjin and hurried over to greet him.

"President Cai, what brings you here?" Zhu Xiaohu bowed his posture low, smiling warmly.

After all, in investment banking, Cai Yongjin was his senior—he hadn't even entered university when Cai Yongjin had already joined Morgan Stanley as a Senior Investment Manager in Project Financing.

"Naturally, to participate in Kuai's Series B funding. Your performance over the past two years has been impressive, with great progress."

Cai Yongjin praised.

Normally, projects he personally attended to were in oil, power, and automotive sectors; for internet companies like Kuai, Goldman Sachs had only junior investment managers handling them.

Yu Heng, watching Cai Yongjin, once again elevated his assessment of Kuai's value and potential.

Everyone sat down. Chen Yansen glanced around and noticed that Tencent's representative hadn't arrived yet.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Liu Zhiping, Lin Chenfeng, and others entered swiftly through the door.

"Sorry, held up a few minutes on the way," Liu Zhiping greeted everyone one by one.

"Since everyone is here, President Chen, why not share your thoughts? I assume you've reviewed all the investment institutions' quotes."

Cai Yongjin leaned back and asked bluntly.

"Huake and Jin Sha Venture Capital offered the lowest. My bottom line is 3.2 billion U. S. dollars. Below that, I can only apologize."

Chen Yansen lifted his eyelids slightly, meeting everyone's gaze, speaking calmly.

Implicitly: either Huake and Jin Sha Venture Capital withdraw, or raise their offer to 3.2 billion U. S. dollars.

Although Yu Heng's first offer was just over 3 billion, that didn't mean his authority was capped at 3 billion—he could certainly approve a 200-million-dollar fluctuation.

Zhou Shouzhi and Cai Yongjin exchanged a glance and immediately understood: their offers were likely the highest.

But from Chen Yansen's demeanor, it was clear he didn't want to lose Huake and Jin Sha Venture Capital; even knowing Goldman Sachs and DST's bids, he still accepted a minimum valuation of 3.2 billion U. S. dollars.

This is a smart, big-picture young man!

Cai Yongjin silently evaluated.

The essence of fundraising is exchanging equity for capital and resources; many founders fall into the trap of "choose whoever offers the highest valuation," often ignoring whether the equity structure supports sustainable development or whether the VC can bring hidden resources for business growth.

In both aspects, Chen Yansen's handling was extremely astute.

During Series A funding, Senlian Capital brought in five investors at once, dispersing equity; apart from Tencent and Mama Ali holding slightly higher stakes, DST, Huake, and Jin Sha Venture Capital each held between 2% and 3%.

Chen Yansen had no concern about the problem of control loss due to excessive equity dilution.

After hearing Yu Heng's reply, Zhu Xiaohu felt all eyes fixed on him; after a moment's thought, he finally nodded.

Gao Weilin had warned him in advance that this financing round would adopt a layered or phased financing strategy to resolve the issue of inconsistent valuations.

For Huake and Jin Sha Venture Capital, a $3.2 billion valuation was the limit.

As for the shortfall, Yu Heng and Zhu Xiaohu must make up the difference with additional resources, or Chen Yansen would still kick both of them out.

"Given differing valuations from all parties, the Series B financing for Kuai Di Taxi will adopt a layered financing approach; the price gap from the highest valuation may be settled using various forms of payment, including industry resources, management support, talent networks, and capital ecosystems."

Chen Yansen said slowly.

This arrangement was unfair to DST and Gao Sheng, but what could they do? They were foreign investors and could not offer Kuai Di Taxi any policy advantages.

For instance, Huake Capital offered the lowest price in the Series A round, but it could easily secure authorization documents from transportation associations in North China, East China, and South China, enabling Kuai Di Taxi to implement top-down promotion within the taxi industry.

On the driver side, Kuai Di Taxi's ability to outpace DiDi was absolutely inseparable from Huake Capital's assistance.

Penguin and Mama Ali were the same: if you can't offer price, you must offer resources.

"I have no objections," Zhou Shouzhi spoke up first.

Even if he refused, Chen Yansen, to dilute investors' equity stakes, would still use phased financing: accepting funds for the agreed valuation portion first, then opening the next financing stage after the prior companies were finalized.

It amounted to splitting the Series B financing into many separate rounds.

In essence, there was no difference—that was why Chen Yansen stated it openly.

"No problem, but the valuation of additional resources must be approved by everyone," Cai Yongjin adjusted his glasses and said gravely.

Whether layered or phased financing, both were common in the investment industry; as long as all parties accepted, there was no major issue.

Seeing that the two highest-bidding investment institutions had agreed, Chen Yansen felt no further hesitation and instructed Gao Weilin and Cheng Weixing to communicate separately with each investor.

The accompanying financial analysts from Sen Lian Capital distributed to each investor's finance team detailed financial health data on Kuai Di Taxi, including revenue structure, costs, and profits, for review.

Once the broad direction was set, the subsequent negotiations became routine.

Ma Liyun invited Cai Yongjin, Chen Yansen, and others downstairs to the octagonal pavilion for tea, leaving contract details to subordinates to handle.

As they left the banquet hall, Liu Zhiping hurried over and asked: "When will Pinbei's Series B financing begin?"

"Director Liu, you know Pinbei isn't short on cash," Chen Yansen replied with a smile.

He knew well that Ma Wenteng was likely growing anxious.

The traffic entry agreement between Pinbei and Penguin had been signed for only one year; with the contract nearing expiration, Ma Wenteng wanted to continue using traffic resources to exchange for deeper collaboration with Chen Yansen.

"What about the primary traffic entry points for WeChat and QQ?" Liu Zhiping pressed, not believing Chen Yansen wasn't tempted.

"It's actually quite embarrassing to keep freeloaded off Penguin's free traffic," Chen Yansen said, though his face showed not a trace of embarrassment.

Liu Zhiping sneered; he didn't believe a word of Chen Yansen's lies—if the one being freeloaded didn't mind, how could he claim to be "wronged"?

He then asked: "All Penguin can offer is money and traffic—what else do you want?"

"Add Chengzi Pay to WeChat's ecosystem entry points," Chen Yansen stopped walking and replied with a smile.

Chengzi Pay?

Liu Zhiping chuckled, shaking his head: "Pony won't agree unless you sell Chengzi Pay to WeChat or let Penguin take a controlling stake in Chengzi Pay."

"Then let's switch: add Kuai Di Taxi and Kuai Pao to the primary traffic entry points," Chen Yansen said calmly.

"..." Liu Zhiping pointed at Chen Yansen, unable to suppress a bitter laugh—he realized Chen Yansen was playing a "break-the-window" game of feinting forward to retreat; he snapped: "You're greedy!"

"Penguin is also a shareholder of Kuai Di Taxi and Kuai Pao," Chen Yansen said.

"Only one among many—not even a major shareholder. If you gave Penguin more equity, Pony could better explain it to the board."

After scolding, Liu Zhiping began seriously considering the proposal.

"How much is 'more'?" Chen Yansen asked.

"That depends on your sincerity," Liu Zhiping replied.

Walking behind, the two reached a preliminary agreement within minutes.

If Penguin wanted to invest more, Chen Yansen certainly wouldn't stop it.

Whether in food delivery or ride-hailing, the initial costs to cultivate markets and users ran into billions—even tens of billions—the more deep-pocketed fools, the better.

Over the next two days, Chen Yansen either visited NetEase or was a guest at Mama Ali's headquarters.

Until the afternoon of the last day of July, all investment institutions finally confirmed every contract detail with Sen Lian Capital.

Formal signing, fund transfers, and other procedures still required another half-month to a month, as each company's internal processes varied in speed.

But Chen Yansen wasn't in a hurry; Kuai Di Taxi's corporate account still held nearly $20 million, enough to sustain operations until the next payment arrived.

Meanwhile.

Li Yanhong in Beijing had already received the news; upon learning Kuai Di Taxi's Series B financing reached over $500 million, he immediately frowned.

At the current subsidy war trend, monthly cash burn was 300 million Huayuan; Kuai Di Taxi could still last another year.

What about DiDi?

Would Jun Lian Capital be willing to continue investing and injecting capital?

That night, Cheng Wei learned the result; his heart sank with a thud, and pressure surged upon him.

(End of Chapter)