As one of the first people in China to start a business on the Internet, Lei Jun can be said to have retired for a period of time after being listed in Jinshan. However, during that time, he was not idle, but became an angel investor. In a speech to the World Economic Forum, Lei Jun discussed the importance of angel investing for entrepreneurs and shared a case that made him earn a thousand times, which is the UC browser.
As a browser software that has been popular since the Nokia era, I believe that many people's mobile phones have had UC figures. Although UC has not been listed, but its founder He Xiaopeng is to make a lot of money, in 2014 Ali's acquisition of UC Youshi, the final amount finalized is nearly 30 billion yuan, He Xiaopeng is also to achieve the goal of wealth freedom before the age of 40, but now it seems that this goal is not the end of He Xiaopeng's entrepreneurial career.
Founding UC30 billion sold to Ma Yun, Lei Jun earned 1,000 times
He Xiaopeng founded UC UVIS as early as 2004, but the initial project is not to do browsers but to do mailboxes, but the domestic Internet popularization is relatively late, at that time, people have become accustomed to communicating with text messages every day, and the mailbox does not have much market. Just when the mailbox project was in trouble, He Xiaopeng met Ding Lei, not only got 800,000 angel investment, but also got an idle office, under the efforts of a team of 12 people, a year later, the new product UC Browser gained more than one million users.
However, as we all know, the Internet project has always burned money, Ding Lei provided 800,000 funds did not last long, in 2006, He Xiaopeng luckily met Lei Jun, at this time Jinshan has basically locked the listing, Lei Jun is also planning for their future, so they and friends jointly invested UC4 million yuan, accounting for 20% of the shares, which is also one of Lei Jun's earliest angel investments.
Later, Alibaba also appeared in UC's shareholder list, and the equity even reached 66%. The shareholding structure of UC is not like JD.com, although Liu Qiangdong has a small share, but the voting power is high. After Ali settled in, He Xiaopeng almost lost control of UC, so at the age of 37, he completely sold UC to Ali, which also coincided with Ali's rapid development, and gave a price of up to 4.35 billion US dollars for the acquisition, equivalent to about 30 billion yuan.
Re-entrepreneurship was supported by Lei Jun, raising more than 18.8 billion yuan
Just as the so-called end is for a better start, the three new car-making forces that are more famous in China, their founders have had successful entrepreneurial experience, Li wants to found the auto home, Li Bin founded the easy car, He Xiaopeng founded the UC, with the achievements of the three projects, they have already achieved wealth freedom, but in the outlet of new energy vehicles, they are invariably pouring in. After selling UC in 2014, He Xiaopeng founded Xiaopeng Motors non-stop.
In the process of founding UC, He Xiaopeng has accumulated a lot of contacts, so its financing is also very smooth, in the A round of financing, including Lei Jun, Alibaba partner Yu Yongfu and other personal investments, the amount of financing up to 42 million US dollars, which is more surprising than corporate investment. However, the degree of cash burning in the automotive industry is not smaller than that of the Internet industry.
In the second half of 2019, He Xiaopeng talked with Li Bin of Weilai for several hours, all considering how to survive, and according to the annual report, Xiaopeng Automobile lost 4.653 billion yuan that year. The delivery of 13,000 units throughout the year also made He Xiaopeng feel a little confused about the future, that is, when He Xiaopeng felt that Xiaopeng Car was going to lie in the ICU, it was Lei Jun who saved him, and in November 2019, a $400 million C round of financing included Xiaomi Group. Later, before the listing, Xiaopeng Automobile raised as much as 18.8 billion yuan.
Deliveries soared, almost breaking through 100,000 units
In August 2020, Xiaopeng Automobile was finally listed on the US stock market, and the market value on the day of listing reached the peak of 120 billion yuan, and then in less than three months, the market value exceeded 50 billion US dollars, even surpassing Toyota and other established car companies, although many people called it a market value bubble, but at that time it undoubtedly gave Xiaopeng Automobile the confidence to go on.
From the data point of view, Xiaopeng Automobile's delivery volume has indeed reached a new high and shown explosive growth, delivering 13,000 vehicles in 2019, 27,000 vehicles in 2020, and as high as 98,000 in 2021. With the user base, Xiaopeng Automobile can expand on the service network, from its published data, Xiaopeng has laid out 661 brand supercharging stations in 228 cities across the country, and perhaps the improvement of facilities will still bring new development to Xiaopeng Automobile.
However, the automotive industry is more affected by the supply chain than the Internet industry, he Xiaopeng himself said that in order to get chips, he flew to negotiate with people for three days and two ends, and called this "flying". At the end of last year, it was even rumored that He Xiaopeng had a quarrel with Zeng Yuqun, chairman of the Ningde era, because of the introduction of AVIC lithium batteries. In addition to supply chain reasons, there are BYD and Xiaomi in the new energy vehicle track, and the further you go, the greater the pressure on He Xiaopeng. What do you think?