Chapter 96: Series A Funding of 5.6 Billion, Rejecting Little Ma Once Again

January 14, the Pullman Hotel in Hucheng, top-floor banquet hall.

Chen Yansen, accompanied by Wang Zihao, Song Yuncheng, and the finance and legal staff, after a full morning of detailed discussions with no objections to the contents of the investment agreement, shareholders' agreement, equity transfer agreement, and employee stock option plan, finally signed their names and affixed the official seal of Senhai Technology.

20% equity in exchange for 560 million in funding, a valuation of 2.8 billion!

Once the news got out, the entire e-commerce circle would be set ablaze.

Chen Yansen shook hands and exchanged brief pleasantries with the three investors one by one, thinking to himself: "Barely half of last life's fortune, but at least I didn't reincarnate for nothing."

"Mr. Chen, congratulations! With this capital, Fox Tao will surely make a qualitative leap in talent recruitment, marketing, and technology upgrades."

Zhang Jiancheng shook Chen Yansen's hand and offered his congratulations with a smile.

His words also carried a subtle reminder that the money had to be used in accordance with the investment agreement.

Young entrepreneurs were easily dazzled by money—buying cars and houses with the funding, or setting up third-party companies to siphon off venture capital for private use.

"Thank you for your trust, Mr. Zhang."

Chen Yansen caught the unspoken meaning but didn't mind.

Having previously noticed that he had no interest in Lotte and SIG, he immediately sidelined SIG and joined forces with IDG Capital to successfully secure Fox Tao's Series A funding.

Decisive in action, no morals, no bottom line—a person like that would go far in the future.

"Mr. Chen, may we speak privately?"

Just then, Liu Zhiping walked over and interjected.

Zhang Jiancheng smiled slightly, tactfully taking his leave to give Liu Zhiping the time.

He was only an investment manager; he could still put on airs in front of small entrepreneurs, but Liu Zhiping was a true big shot.

He couldn't afford to offend him.

"Thanks, Martin. Without Penguin's backing, IDG and Siwei wouldn't have dared to call for a 2.8 billion valuation," Chen Yansen said in a lowered voice.

"The higher the Series A valuation, the more it proves Mr. Ma's eye for talent. If you didn't have the ability, no matter how high a price I called, it would be useless. Senzai, you really are impressive."

Liu Zhiping nodded and switched to a more familiar form of address.

The two walked out of the banquet hall and into a conference room. A business hotel like the Pullman had long taken all kinds of business needs into consideration; on the same floor, besides the conference room, there was also a multimedia hall that could accommodate fifty people.

"Pony wants you to take over Paipai. com." The moment they sat down, Liu Zhiping got straight to the point.

"Martin, I told you before—I don't want to work for someone else," Chen Yansen said with a faint smile, firmly refusing.

If Ma Wenteng were willing to come to Fox Tao, Chen Yansen would gladly save him a customer service position.

As for working for Little Ma himself, forget it.

"Don't be so quick to refuse! Before I came, Pony specifically instructed that as long as you join Penguin, Paipai. com can operate independently, with all matters under your control. An annual salary of thirty million, plus stock options worth two hundred million."

Liu Zhiping said with full confidence.

Terms like these could easily win over even Zhang Xiaolong, let alone Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen was taken aback, not expecting Ma Wenteng's determination in e-commerce to run so deep. After a moment's thought, he understood—WeChat, the T0-level application Ma Wenteng had bet on, had not yet launched.

Ma Wenteng, intent on completing the Penguin ecosystem, naturally would not give up the e-commerce track easily.

Two hundred million in stock options?

One had to remember that Penguin's market cap in 2011 was far from its peak. If he agreed, cashing out at a high point ten years later would yield at least eight billion.

That was a fortune Chen Yansen had never seen in two lifetimes!

"Martin, sorry, please help me pass along to Pony that I have no interest in Paipai. com, and I don't want to do e-commerce at Penguin either."

Chen Yansen took a deep breath and refused once more.

Liu Zhiping frowned, a flash of surprise in his eyes, and shook his head: "Don't think the two-hundred-million options and Fox Tao's 2.8 billion valuation are worlds apart—you should know the ceiling of the shopping guide model well enough. Don't be fooled by Zhang Yong and Liu Qiangdong acting like they need shopping guide e-commerce right now. Once the two of them join forces to strangle Fox Tao, how much of that 2.8 billion valuation do you think will be left?"

Chen Yansen smiled after hearing this, thinking to himself: After all, he's a big shot—he sees far ahead.

In fact, in his previous life, Alibaba announced new alliance rules in 2016: all sales generated through redirects from shopping guide sites would no longer count toward Taobao's monthly sales.

Liu Qiangdong was even more ruthless, bluntly stating that shopping guide sites had no value—they were just highway robbers.

From then on, shopping guide e-commerce took a sharp downturn—either pivoting to self-operated models or struggling on the brink of death.

Put plainly, these platforms had grown too comfortable making money and were overly dependent on domestic e-commerce platforms, which was why they ended up in such a state. If they had pivoted in time and brought in overseas shopping sites, they wouldn't have been so passive.

Having witnessed ten years of e-commerce's golden era, Chen Yansen had long been on guard against Ma Liyun and Liu Qiangdong.

He had no intention of guarding Fox Tao forever—at most another year or two, then he'd find some sucker to take over, cash out, and leave.

"I understand the value of these two-hundred-million options, and I have the ability to handle policy shifts in domestic e-commerce."

Chen Yansen replied with confidence.

"You're really making this hard for me. Yesterday before I left, I slapped my chest and guaranteed Pony that I'd definitely bring you into Penguin."

Liu Zhiping sighed with a bitter smile, full of regret.

He understood Chen Yansen's style—the refusal wasn't a negotiating tactic to drive up his own price, but a genuine unwillingness to join Penguin.

"Penguin is now an important shareholder of Fox Tao, so I suppose that's another way of working for Mr. Ma, isn't it?"

Chen Yansen cracked a joke to ease the awkward atmosphere.

"With a big company behind you, you can get unimaginable capital and technical resources—why waste your precious time?" Liu Zhiping couldn't hold back and asked again.

If it were him, he would join Penguin without the slightest hesitation.

"A man, even if he fails a hundred times, has to succeed once. I don't want people to say later that all my achievements came from investors, not my own ability."

Chen Yansen thought for a moment and repeated words he had said in his previous life.

"Come to Shencheng when you have time, I'll treat you to tea." Liu Zhiping rose and issued the invitation in a flat tone.

Since they couldn't see eye to eye, there was no point wasting more time.

"Martin, let me walk you out." Chen Yansen followed behind and saw him all the way downstairs.

Then he turned and went back upstairs.

The three investment institutions and Fox Tao still had a small press conference to hold, followed by a dinner banquet. Although Liu Zhiping had left, the agenda still had to proceed as usual.

At 1:30 p. m., the homepage of Penguin News Network featured the headline: "FoxTao Completes 560 Million RMB Funding, Valued at 2.8 Billion."

Upon seeing the news, FoxTao team members on the second floor of the startup park erupted in cheers.

In the office, Tang Qingshan pondered for the first time: sending FoxTao to participate in March's College Student Entrepreneurship Competition was outright bullying!

In Chunshen, Chen Daofang stared at the news on his phone, lost in thought, numb to it all.

Immediately afterward, the three major portals and Weibo all reported and reposted it.

"IDG led the round, with Penguin and Thinking Capital following—just how great is the potential of affiliate e-commerce?"

"Less than half a year into founding, core members are all college students—is this a 19-year-old business genius building a quasi-unicorn?"

"Leader in affiliate e-commerce: copycats flood in—how does FoxTao build its moat?"

Mogujie, which should have been founded in February 2011, was forced to enter the affiliate e-commerce market a month early.

Meilishuo, founded in November 2009, also announced on the same day that it would adjust its business and launch a merchant recruitment program and brand flash-sale channel.

Suddenly, the affiliate e-commerce model became the industry's hottest trend.

At the banquet, Zhang Jiancheng asked: "Manager Chen, what do you think of Mogujie and Meilishuo's business shifts?"

"Affiliate e-commerce seems to have extremely low barriers to entry, but in reality, the barriers are very high—not just anyone can do it well."

Chen Yansen sneered, dismissing it with contempt.

It's good that others are copying—there are hundreds of millions of internet users in China, and this number increases by 100 to 200 million every year; even though FoxTao's cumulative registered users have already reached 40 million, over 90% of users still harbor doubts about the cashback model and have not registered with FoxTao.

Mogujie and Meilishuo's moves can help FoxTao cultivate the market and educate users; once these users become familiar with affiliate e-commerce, they will naturally seek out the industry's leader.

What Chen Yansen must do is buy traffic on one hand and secure merchant resources on the other, to become the ultimate winner in this industry.

Zhang Jiancheng, Lin Chenfeng from Tencent's venture capital division, and the IDG investment representative, seeing his confidence, felt reassured.

The banquet gradually ended at 8:30 p. m.

"I'm returning to Xucheng tomorrow," Wang Zihao said. Although Xucheng College had already broken for winter vacation, the project team still needed to operate.

These eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds felt for the first time how hard it was to be an employee—they no longer had winter or summer breaks.

"What about you?" Chen Yansen asked Song Yuncheng.

"I need to return to my hometown—I'll be back in Xucheng around the 16th afternoon," Song Yuncheng said softly, tightening her shirt collar.

"Lucheng? Have you bought your ticket?" Chen Yansen asked casually.

"I've bought it," Song Yuncheng replied, head down. She had completely forgotten to buy a ticket while preparing funding materials; by the time she remembered, tickets had become even harder to get after students went on winter break.

She planned to go to the long-distance bus station tomorrow and try her luck.

"Then go rest early," Chen Yansen glanced at his watch, caught a glimpse of Song Yuncheng's pale face, and urged her.

All of them were staying at the Pullman Hotel.

Chen Yansen returned to his room, stared out the window at the glittering night scene, and fell into thought.

He still had two years before 4G and smartphones became fully widespread.

What was Lei Jun doing at this time? Preparing for the Mi 1 phone?

What about Zhang Yiming? Probably still working on his 99fang.

Huang Zheng of Pinduoduo was almost certainly still working at Google.

"I'm not bad either! Compared to them, Jun'er has more money than me—but is he better-looking?"

Chen Yansen chuckled to himself, thinking that when he cashed out someday, he'd say:

That year I was nineteen, and my account held only a cold 4 billion RMB.

(End of Chapter)