After divorce, I can hear the voice of the future

Chapter 96 Mobike Financing
On Friday, Lu Liang was invited to the Shangri-La Hotel to attend Mobike's Series A financing reception.

Although the valuation was only $1000 million, the event was staged as if it was raising a billion-dollar round of financing.

As soon as he entered the door, Lu Liang saw Li Bing and Shen Peng talking, and vaguely heard that they were talking about the new energy vehicle industry.

He was curious, but did not rush to join the conversation. He casually picked up the Mobike financing plan on the table and took a look at it.

After a while, Li Bing finished talking with Shen Peng, walked up to Lu Liang, and said with a smile: "Mr. Lu, I have heard of your great name for a long time."

Although he was not the one who invited Lu Liang, he was still half the owner, so it was only right for him to say hello.

He was also curious about who Lu Liang was, who had caused such a stir in the financial circle in the past half month.

"Mr. Li, you are too kind. The person just now was Mr. Shen Peng from Sequoia, right?" Lu Liang smiled, but was not too enthusiastic.

A net worth of one million is a hurdle, and one hundred million is an even bigger hurdle. However, the gap between one hundred million and ten billion is not as big as imagined.

Because people with wealth of over 100 million have already accumulated original capital, not to mention that he still has cash in hand.

Li Bing smiled and said, "We were just talking about the domestic new energy industry. Mr. Lu is also interested?"

“I have heard that Magic City will introduce Tesla to accelerate the development of the domestic new energy industry.”

"Mr. Lu knows quite a lot."

Li Bing was surprised. The introduction of Tesla into Shanghai was a very gossip. Unless one was a person who paid special attention to the industry, few people knew about it.

Lu Liang smiled and said, "I heard him talk about it last time when I was chatting with a friend. He also talked about your NIO car, Mr. Li."

"Mr. Lu, what do you think of this industry?"

Li Bing hopes that Lu Liang can give some unique insights from the perspective of a financial practitioner.

Lu Liang said softly: "Low carbon, environmental protection, and promoting the development of new energy can enable our country to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible."

Li Bing was stunned: "Mr. Lu, do you really think that new energy will be more environmentally friendly?"

"Mr. Li, don't you think we don't have the final say? As long as it sounds environmentally friendly, that's fine."

Lu Liang smiled. New energy is not that environmentally friendly, but if you want to have business, you must first shout out the doctrine.

Even a powerful country like the United States, even if it wants to start a war, has to take out a bottle of laundry detergent and shout that it is an extremely dangerous chemical.

Li Bing also smiled and changed the subject, asking, "Mr. Lu, why are you here today? Are you also interested in Mobike's financing?"

He finally realized that Lu Liang was just talking nonsense to him because he didn't want to say more, so he didn't ask any more questions.

"I am a little interested, but I don't know if I can subscribe for more shares."

As Lu Liang spoke, he looked towards where Shen Peng was. The other party seemed to know him and smiled and raised his glass to greet him.

Lu Liang also raised his glass and smiled in response. Li Bing said softly, "It's OK to follow the investment, but there's probably no hope of leading the investment."

He paused and added: "Mr. Lu, don't get me wrong, because Sequoia is willing to sign legal terms with Mobike."

Li Bing knew that Lu Liang was approached by Hu Weiwei, but he also knew that Lu Liang had invested in ofo and held a 20% stake.

So he found Shen Peng and promised that Sequoia would lead the investment before the IPO, but Sequoia could not invest in ofo.

Risk hedging is what every venture capital firm is most happy to do. If the big boss and the second largest investor invest together, no one will suffer a loss.

Venture capitalists are happy with this, but companies may not be.

Mobike is not a startup team like ofo. With Li Bing standing behind it, he has bargaining power and is also qualified to force venture capital.

So I told Sequoia directly that if they wanted to lead the investment in this round or subsequent rounds, they could, but they could only invest in my company and not in other shared bicycle companies.

Lu Liang frowned and looked at Hu Weiwei not far away. Hu Weiwei lowered her head in shame, not daring to look him in the eye.

Hu Weiwei also just learned that Sequoia was willing to sign legal terms with Mobike, thereby obtaining the right to lead the subsequent rounds of investment. Although she really wanted to bring Lu Liang in to increase his voice in the company, Sequoia's willingness to bet on Mobike alone left her with no reason to refuse.

After all, Sequoia's single-minded investment in Mobike will benefit it in every way, both in the short and long term.

The dispute between her and Li Bing over the right to speak should not affect the company's future development, so she could only apologize to Lu Liang.

Li Bing said softly, "Boss Lu, don't blame Boss Hu. She is just too young and has no experience. I am here to say sorry to you on her behalf."

"Mr. Li, you are too kind. I just don't understand one thing."

"Mr. Lu, go ahead."

“You’ve taken such good care of Mobike, why don’t you come out and do it yourself?”

Lu Liang was puzzled. If he had known that Li Bing had such a strong desire for control, he would not have intervened in the dispute between Hu and Li.

"Manpower is limited. Although I am optimistic about shared bikes, the market is too small after all."

Li Bing paused, looking very serious: "Mr. Lu, new energy vehicles are the trend of the future."

In his view, the Mobike that Hu Weiwei is so proud of is just a pawn in the layout of the new energy market.

He is very optimistic about the new energy vehicle industry, but the road ahead is uncertain and he needs to work hard. He and Yiche.com alone are not sure whether they can wait until the day of dawn.

He doesn't care about Mobike, but he has a strong desire for control. He wants to get to know various capital tycoons through Mobike's financing, so as to pave the way for NIO.

"Completing industrial upgrading, reducing dependence on a single energy source, and intervening in the Middle East situation are national policies, and the new energy industry has great potential."

Although Tianxing was in decline, everyone knew that it would only take Lu Liang half a year to become successful. In another year or two, he might become a tycoon and one of the targets that Li Bing would try to win over.

Lu Liang fell into deep thought, and Li Bing pressed the issue: "Boss Lu, now new and old forces have entered the market. In the north, there is Li Xiang from Autohome, in the south, there is He Xiaopeng from GAC, and there is also Boss Jia from LeTV, not to mention Boss Wang from BYD who has been developing new energy from the beginning. An industry favored by so many forces will become a new trend even if it is not a trend."

Lu Liang thought for a moment and said with a smile, "Mr. Li, today is Mobike's financing meeting. Let's find a time to talk about this matter."

Li Bing, Li Xiang and He Xiaopeng, one relies on Yiche.com, one relies on Autohome, and one relies on the BAIC team.

He planned to copy Panda's operation. After all, if an outsider wanted to come in, he had to pay some tuition and make some friends.

"Okay, Mr. Lu, please make yourself at your own convenience. It seems like a friend is coming over. I'll go and greet him."

Lu Liang nodded and followed Li Bing's gaze, and saw Lei Jun from Xiaomi. The financing with a valuation of tens of millions of dollars obviously did not attract him. He was probably brought over by Li Bing to help Mobike.

"I'm afraid calling him Leibus is not appropriate. He should be called Leifit."

Lu Liang found a corner to rest, quietly looking at Lei Jun who was surrounded by flowers and was the center of attention.

Ever since he came into contact with venture capital, he realized that Lei Jun's reputation in this field was even greater than that of Zhu Hu and Shen Peng.

Before he founded Xiaomi, he was already a very famous angel investor in China.

As time went by, many bigwigs gathered, and Hu Weiwei also took the stage to talk about the financing plan and announce the shares.

Lu Liang raised his hand and called Wen Chao over, whispering in his ear: "Go and subscribe, subscribe as much as you can."

Through this cocktail party, he got to know Li Bing and understood his intentions, which actually achieved his goal.

Mobike’s financing share is not important. It cannot be the lead investor anyway. If it’s there, it’s there. If not, it’s not there.

Lu Liang was very open-minded about it, but Hu Weiwei and Li Bing didn't think so and still gave him a 3% share.

Finally, Sequoia led the round with 5%, followed by Tianxing with 3%, and Chenyang and Jingfeng each with 1%.

Lei Jun simply came by to cheer for his good friend, and left after showing up.

　There are still two chapters to go very late.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)