Chuanfu Rui Microelectronics was dissolved, and wages and compensation could not be paid?
On December 5, it was reported that according to the workplace social platform Maimai users, Fosun Group's semiconductor company, Furui Microelectronics, was dissolved.
Netizens whose certification information is an employee of Furui Micro broke the news that Furui Micro Company was dissolved, the entire company was gone, and wages and compensation could not be paid. Some employees said that the layoff promise will be given "N+1", but it will be paid in quarterly installments from February next year, with a little paid every quarter.
△ Image source: Maimai
As early as June this year, it was reported that there was a problem with the capital chain of Furui Micro, and the year-end bonus was delayed, and employees and headhunters were persuaded to retire. Subsequently, after the efforts of employees, the company said that it would be reissued at the end of August, but by September, it was reported that it was still not issued.
According to industrial and commercial information, Hefei Furui Microelectronics Co., Ltd., formerly known as Furui Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., was registered and established on January 27, 2022, with a registered capital of 74,102,236 yuan, legal representative Wang Lipu, and 150 insured people in the company. In addition, Hefei Furui Micro also has wholly-owned subsidiaries in Shanghai (the number of insured people is unknown), Beijing (13 insured people), Shenzhen (the number of insured people is unknown), Nanjing (86 insured people), and Wuxi (the number of insured people is unknown).
From the perspective of equity structure, Nanjing Nangang Iron and Steel United Co., Ltd. is the largest shareholder of Furui Micro, holding 35.2050% of the shares. Nanjing Nangang Iron & Steel United Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between Fosun Group and Nanjing Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., in which Fosun Group controls about 60% of the shares. In addition, Fosun Group also directly holds a 6.1402% stake in Furui Micro.
According to the official website, Furui Micro is an advanced technology-based enterprise funded by Fosun Group, with the goal of becoming the world's leading provider of large computing power solutions in the era of intelligent travel, and is committed to providing solutions based on high-performance chips in the fields of automotive electronics, artificial intelligence, and general computing. At present, it is mainly engaged in the research and development of automotive intelligent cockpit and ADS/ADAS chips, with leading chip design capabilities and artificial intelligence algorithms, and through the empowerment of underlying technologies, to promote the innovation and development of the automotive industry and improve people's travel experience.
According to public information, in May 2022, Furui Micro announced the completion of the first round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, which was jointly led by Shanghai Fosun High-tech (Group) Co., Ltd. and Nanjing Nangang Iron and Steel United Co., Ltd.
In December 2022, Furui Micro announced the completion of an angel+ round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, led by CICC Capital and Baoding Investment, followed by Living Water Capital and Anhui Zhongchen Investment Group. Furui Microelectronics said that the financing funds will be mainly used for team expansion, R&D resource purchase and market expansion in R&D centers in Shanghai, Hefei, Nanjing, Xi'an, Beijing, Shenzhen, Cambridge, Wuxi and other places, so as to accelerate the implementation of projects such as automotive intelligent cockpit and ADS/ADAS chip research and development.
At the end of March 2023, Furui Micro announced the completion of a Pre-A round of strategic financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. This round of financing was jointly led by Hefei Industrial Investment and Hefei High-Tech Investment, followed by VeriSilicon. The raised funds will be used for the introduction of international semiconductor talents, the R&D and technology implementation of domestic chip products, market expansion and customer experience, and the deepening of the global layout of Furui Microelectronics.
It is worth noting that on November 21, 2022, before receiving the state-owned investment from Hefei, Furui Micro signed a contract with Hefei High-tech Zone and decided to move its headquarters from Shanghai to Hefei. According to the news released by Hefei High-tech, the Furui Microelectronics Headquarters project plans to invest a total of 800 million yuan to build a listed headquarters in Hefei, as a center for overall business operations, OEM customer expansion, strategic planning, application solution development and global services. It is mainly engaged in the research and development of automotive intelligent cockpit and autonomous driving chips, and provides high-performance chip-based solutions for automotive electronics, artificial intelligence, general computing and other fields with leading chip design capabilities and artificial intelligence algorithms.
Judging from the available information, since its establishment in January 2022, it has been less than 2 years, and after three rounds of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, it should have raised about 1 billion yuan, and the total number of employees is about 250-300 people.
If Furui Micro wants to design an intelligent cockpit or ADAS chip, it will probably use advanced manufacturing processes, raise a team of 300 people for two years, plus the money to buy IP and office rent and other infrastructure investment, 1 billion funds may not be enough. What's more, it will invest 800 million yuan to build a listed headquarters in Hefei. In addition, in the past two years, Furui Micro does not seem to have achieved phased results, at least in the official website of Furui Micro and related news reports.
In view of the end of March this year, Furui Micro announced the completion of hundreds of millions of yuan in Pre-A round of strategic financing. Moreover, this round of financing is mainly led by Hefei Industrial Investment and Hefei High-tech Investment, and Furui Micro also announced an investment of 800 million yuan to build a listed headquarters project in Hefei, which seems to be preparing for listing. Now, only more than half a year after a new round of financing, Furui Micro Company will be fully dissolved, I am afraid that Hefei will not agree, otherwise it will really become a big wrong, unless the major shareholders of Furui Micro provide compensation.
Therefore, Xinzhixun believes that the rumored "comprehensive dissolution" is unlikely, and Furui Micro may only shrink the R&D layout and personnel this time, and some R&D centers outside the Hefei headquarters and Shanghai may be directly cut.
Some headhunters also said on the pulse that Furui Micro did not dissolve the entire company this time, but "laid off two sites". A person familiar with the matter said that this time Shenzhen Furui Micro and Beijing Furui Micro were disbanded on the spot, but Shanghai Furui Micro is still there.
Although, Furui Micro did not officially respond to this news. However, on the evening of December 5, the financial director of Furui Microelectronics responded to the media that the above news was not true and the company was still operating. It said that the wages of all employees of companies in other regions, including Shanghai and Hefei, are paid normally, and employees have tax records that can be retrieved.
At present, some recruitment websites still hang the recruitment information of dozens of positions of Furuiwei.
It is worth noting that since the beginning of this year, a number of well-known semiconductor start-up companies/teams have announced their dissolution. For example, in May this year, OPPO dissolved its chip design subsidiary Zheku Technology, in August this year, Meizu disbanded the AR chip R&D team, and in November this year, TCL Technology Group's chip design subsidiary "Mostar Semiconductor" was also exposed to be "dissolved".
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Editor: Xinzhixun-Rogue Sword