Ali Daniel Zhang reappeared
Daniel Zhang became an investor
Unexpectedly, Ali Daniel Zhang actually joined the investment fund of Liu Xiaodan, the "M&A Queen".
Half a year after stepping down as chairman of Alibaba's board of directors, the latest whereabouts of "Xiaoyaozi" Daniel Zhang were revealed, which was Daniel Zhang's first public appearance after leaving Alibaba, marking his official entry into the venture capital field.
This morning, Morning One Fund announced on its official WeChat that Daniel Zhang, former chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, will join Morning One Fund and co-serve as managing partner with company founder Liu Xiaodan to explore the new future of M&A funds.
Source: Chenyi Investment Official WeChat
In this regard, Daniel Zhang said, "I am very happy to be a business partner with Xiaodan. It is hoped that through the dynamic and innovative platform of Chenyi, we will focus on the huge opportunities of industrial transformation and value chain reshaping brought about by technological development and economic transformation and upgrading, based on China and looking at the world, integrating the capabilities and resources of both parties in enterprise management, industrial operation and capital market, and building the core competitiveness of M&A investment for the future. ”
In the previous 16 years at Alibaba, Daniel Zhang created the global consumption event Double 11, led Tmall to promote brand enterprises to embrace the digital tide, led Alibaba to leapfrog from the PC era to the wireless era, and made a wide range of layouts in many fields around the world.
At the same time, Daniel Zhang led the construction of a unified data middle platform for all businesses of Alibaba, promoted Alibaba Group's overall cloud migration, and laid a key foundation for its intelligent development. As the former Chairman of Alibaba's Board of Directors, he has demonstrated exceptional leadership as he navigates the challenges of the pandemic and the drastic changes in the external environment.
It seems that in order to commemorate Daniel Zhang's contribution to the Double 11 Shopping Festival, Chenyi Investment Precision Card Point officially announced the above cooperation news at 11:11.
Xiaoyaozi Daniel Zhang
The news about Daniel Zhang's transformation into an investor has been long-awaited in the industry.
On September 10, 2023, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, Joe Tsai, issued an all-staff letter announcing that the transfer of management positions of the Group had been completed as planned on the same day, with him taking over as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Wu Yongming as CEO of the Group. Among them, Alibaba's board of directors accepted Daniel Zhang's request to step down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud.
Where will Xiaoyaozi go?
Tsai Chongxin revealed in the all-staff letter that Ali decided to invest 1 billion US dollars (about 7 billion yuan) to support Daniel Zhang to set up a future-oriented science and technology fund, Tsai Chongxin said, "Xiaoyaozi will continue to work with us in Ali in a different way to meet future development." ”
A month before announcing his resignation as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud, Daniel Zhang also summoned more than 20 entrepreneurs in the model, tool, and application layers of China's large-scale model field to Hangzhou Xixi Wetland for a face-to-face closed-door exchange, and named the closed-door meeting "Xixi Discussion". During the five-hour closed-door meeting, Daniel Zhang filled several pages of notes.
Combined with the $1 billion technology fund supported by Alibaba, many insiders boldly speculate that Daniel Zhang's next investment may enter the track of AI large models.
After half a year, the technology fund supported by Ali has not moved at all, but Daniel Zhang has joined an M&A fund, what kind of changes are behind this, and what changes will be brought to the industry, which has attracted our attention.
Who is Chenyi Investment and who is Liu Xiaodan
As a financial background, Daniel Zhang has accumulated a number of industrial investment experience in Alibaba over the past years, which may be an opportunity for him to become an investor.
After graduating from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 1995, Daniel Zhang worked in Arthur Andersen and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2007, he joined Alibaba as the former CFO of Shanda Network, starting as the CFO of Taobao and quickly taking on the role of COO, making a rare change in identity to manage the business.
Eight years later, in 2015, Daniel Zhang won the trust of Alibaba Group and Jack Ma and was promoted to CEO of Alibaba Group, and then in September 2019, Daniel Zhang took over from the retired Jack Ma and became the true helm of Alibaba.
From a young CFO doing typical financial work to the No. 1 position of China's largest e-commerce company by market capitalization, Daniel Zhang, who has been working in Alibaba for many years, has accumulated rich experience in industrial investment and business practice.
According to IT Orange data, by the end of 2022, Alibaba had invested in 613 domestic and foreign companies, of which 84% were domestic companies and 14% were overseas companies.
Source: IT Orange
From the perspective of industries, historically, the industries involved the most in Alibaba's investment projects are enterprise services and e-commerce retail, with more than 100 investment events. Enterprise service startups are also the main customer groups of Alibaba cloud computing services, while e-commerce retail is Alibaba's old business, and it has always been a concentrated area of Ali's investment and mergers and acquisitions.
In this process, Daniel Zhang also gradually developed his personal investment experience.
According to Tianyancha data, Daniel Zhang serves as a shareholder in Beijing Dansheng Investment Fund Center (Limited Partnership), with a capital contribution ratio of 2%, Beijing Dansheng Investment, founded in 2016, has invested in projects such as Tang Quixote, Lianxin Medical, and Shuwen Technology in the past.
Source: Tianyancha
It should be noted that as the previous head of Ali, most of the funds invested by Daniel Zhang have a more or less relationship with Ali, so whether his business direction in the future of Morning One Fund will revolve around Ali's system, this issue has caused many reveries in the industry.
Compared with Daniel Zhang's financial background and investment experience, the Morning One Investment he chose to join this time is more worthy of our attention.
According to the data, Chenyi Fund is a private equity institution founded by Liu Xiaodan, the "Queen of M&A", which was established on August 8, 2019, and completed the registration of private equity and venture capital fund managers on November 19, 2019. According to the information on the website of the Asset Management Association, Chenyi Fund currently has 32 full-time employees and a management scale of more than 10 billion yuan.
According to the information on the official website, Chenyi Investment is a pioneer in mergers and acquisitions in the Chinese market, focusing on the incremental value of industrial integration, accompanying the best entrepreneurs for a long time, and helping enterprises grow by leaps and bounds.
Source: Asset Management Association
It mainly focuses on three major areas: medical and health, consumer and service, technology and manufacturing. The company's main investment cases include Ruichen Pet Medicine, a pet chain medical platform, Lision Technology, a leader in biopharmaceutical separation and purification services, V-SOL Semiconductor, a one-stop high-end packaging and testing service provider, Weigao, a leading blood purification company, BYD Semiconductor, a domestic electronic component IDM company, Hisun Animal Protection, a leader in the domestic animal health industry, and Changjing Technology, a leading IDM company.
Liu Xiaodan's resume is equally exciting.
Liu Xiaodan, who was the same year as Daniel Zhang, was admitted to Peking University in 1991 and later obtained a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in civil and commercial law. From 2012 to 2019, he served as the president and chairman of Huatai United Securities, also known as the soul of Huatai Securities.
She has led the international business breakthrough and layout of Huatai Securities, including the acquisition of AssetMark and the establishment of a U.S. company, as well as a number of major domestic and overseas capital operations.
In just a few years, she has built this unknown local brokerage into a leader in domestic mergers and acquisitions, creating a legend of "queen of mergers and acquisitions".
M&A queen Liu Xiaodan
But in August 2019, Liu Xiaodan made a decision: officially resigned as co-president of Huatai. Regarding the reason for leaving, Liu Xiaodan explained in his farewell letter, "I chose to end my investment banking career today, but I also want to realize my long-standing dream of starting a business, and the judgment of the future trend of the market has intensified this impulse." ”
Morning One Fund Management Co., Ltd. was born.
It is worth noting that Sequoia has appeared behind Chenyi Investment. According to the enterprise investigation, the company's top two shareholders are Chenyi Investment Co., Ltd. and Sequoia Haochen (Xiamen) Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership). At the same time, Shen Nanpeng, the global managing partner of Sequoia Capital, is a director.
In the face of Daniel Zhang's joining, Liu Xiaodan said, "It is an honor to cooperate with Xiaoyaozi, and I believe that his joining will further strengthen the team's professional capabilities, expand the overall vision, and accelerate the upgrading and iteration of the organization." His rich business management experience and excellent industrial operation capabilities will greatly enhance the value creation ability of Morning One Fund, discover and empower those excellent integrators who lead the development of the industry, and help improve the efficiency of industry integration. ”
At a time when the market environment has undergone major changes and the investment logic has undergone systematic changes, Daniel Zhang's addition will help Morning One Fund upgrade and iterate and better grasp the new round of development opportunities.
Break down the barriers between professional managers and investors
From industry bigwigs to investors, Daniel Zhang's experience once again confirms the path that bigwigs have walked - after reaching the peak of their careers, they invariably turned around and became investors.
There are Xu Xiaoping and Lei Jun in the front, and Su Hua and Zhang Yiming in the back. Interestingly, Tsai Chongxin and Wu Yongming, who are currently at the helm of Alibaba, have previously dominated the investment field.
Wu Yongming, known as "Wu Ma", founded Yuanjing Capital in 2015, and its investment areas cover hard technology, industrial intelligent manufacturing, medical care and going overseas. And Tsai Chongxin's old business before joining Alibaba was investment.
For Daniel Zhang, after achieving financial freedom, it is worth our expectations to support more entrepreneurs through investment and find a broader sea of stars.
The M&A track he chose to join is also about to usher in new development.
According to data from the Qingke Research Center, in 2023, there will be 399 Chinese companies listed at home and abroad, a year-on-year decrease of 21.5%. IPOs are weak and exit issues are becoming more and more severe. And if you can exit with dignity through mergers and acquisitions, it is undoubtedly a better choice for enterprises.
In January this year, Chenyi Investment and Mindray completed a mega merger and acquisition - Mindray Medical spent 6.65 billion yuan to acquire 24.61% of Huitai Medical's shares, taking control of Huitai Medical, and the 30% premium acquisition allowed Huitai Medical and its investors to successfully make money.
The trader behind this merger and acquisition case is Daniel Zhang's new partner, Liu Xiaodan.
It can be seen that after joining forces with Daniel Zhang, the two may be responsible for the capital transaction level and the integrated management empowerment and resource integration business respectively, forming complementary advantages and creating new opportunities.
Of course, we cannot deny that M&A investment is more difficult and challenging than simple venture capital, and how to achieve a balanced transaction of the interests of both parties, the integration of the integration team, the recombination of business and other aspects of the problem are testing Daniel Zhang.
In general, whether Daniel Zhang can break the barriers between professional managers and fund founders will need to be verified for a longer time.
Author | The old electric team