Following.

Green's office in Silicon Valley is full of investors, with nearly two dozen existing shareholders alone.

The largest shareholder is Zhang Yida personally, and other larger shareholders include Penguin, Black Shirt Capital, etc., all holding more than 5% of the shares;

The shareholders with smaller shares include Happy Capital, Li Bing, Fu Weiwei and other former Baimo Bicycle shareholders, with a shareholding ratio of less than 1%.

White, the investment representative of GoogleVentures, that is, Google Ventures, looked at such a lively scene and immediately humored, "Guys, this meeting doesn't look like a fundraising meeting, but like a party." ”

"Mr. White, I disagree with you. The fact that there are so many shareholders standing behind Green shows that the company is highly sought after by investors. ”

Shen Beipeng replied without being salty.

"Shen, you have no sense of humor. "I'm just joking, and I don't mean anything else." ”

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, be quiet for a moment. ”

Green's CEO, Howard, made a "stop" gesture, and all the investors fell silent.

Howard asked his assistant to send a report on the company's operations to all investors, and began to introduce the basic situation of the company:

Green currently operates 121236 shared electric scooters in San Francisco, New York, Boston, ...... and other 25 large and medium-sized cities.

There are a total of 342 employees at the headquarters, in addition to more than 20,000 registered crowdsourcing chargers.

In two locations in China, Kunshan and Tianjin, we have also set up supply chain and R&D teams......"

After Howard gave a basic overview of Green, Lewis Hamilton, an investment representative sent by Uber, asked, "OK, so let's talk about Green's valuation." ”

"In terms of valuation, we think Green's pre-investment valuation should be at $1 billion. ”

Google's White shook his head after listening to Howard's words, "Mr. Howard, Green only has a total of 120,000 scooters, is it possible that a scooter costs $8,000?"

As far as I know, this thing can be made for less than $400 in Kunshan or Tianjin, China!"

Howard chuckled twice, "Mr. White, you're valuing us as if we were manufacturing companies.

I would like to emphasize that Green is a technology company with "smart hardware + Internet of Things + cloud unlocking".

In addition, in the process of establishment, Huimin Travel Group injected more than 100 million US dollars into us.

In addition to these, Green's most valuable thing is creativity. We are the world's first shared electric scooter company.

You should have heard of Mr. Zhang Yida in China, who is comparable to a young man from Zuckerberg.

He provided a lot of forward-thinking advice during the founding of Green, including anti-theft construction of scooters, crowdsourcing chargers, and more.

Isn't that all that worth a billion dollars?"

Uber's Hamilton said: "Mr. Howard, what you said is true, and we admit it.

Green is the world's first shared electric scooter company, but it's not without its challengers.

Both Lime and Bird have completed product development and are seeking financing. In the near future, I am afraid that there will be no small threat to Green. ”

"We are not afraid of any challenge!"

Howard laughs: "First of all, the concept of sharing electric scooters is our first creation, and the crowdsourcing charger is also our first creation.

We know the industry better than any other company.

The most important thing is that we are almost a year ahead of them. ”

"Sir, a temporary lead doesn't mean anything. White shrugged, "Yahoo was so invincible before, it wasn't that we Google;

and Netscape Browser used to have such a high market share, and it was not taught to be a man by Microsoft.

When a user abandons you, they won't even say goodbye. ”

What kind of big-tailed wolf are you pretending to be? Howard secretly said that he just wanted to lower the price and turn all these old things out.

"We're not Yahoo, we're not Netscape. "We're not going to give our competitors any chance to turn things around." ”

"Green still has plenty of cash on his books, tens of millions of dollars. ”

Howard looked at White and Hamilton and said, "Guess why we need to raise money when we have so much money?"

Without waiting for the two to reply, Howard continued: "We have big moves, big moves that take hundreds of millions of dollars to support.

We want to enter the European market and globalize Green's business. ”

"OK, I admit that Green's team is a very good team and works very efficiently. ”

"But it's sensational and counterintuitive for a company that's less than a year old to become a unicorn so quickly!"

"Sir, there are rules that are meant to be broken. ”

Howard laughed: "Would Yahoo have thought that one day it would be taken off the throne by a company that is not worth a million dollars?"

White laughed, this is almost a meme in Silicon Valley, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to sell Google's core technology search algorithm to Yahoo for $1 million.

As a result, he was rejected by Yahoo, believing that he already had a portal search and did not need anything else. And Yahoo thinks that if Google's search is really that good, why don't you use it yourself.

Before the thing was sold, the two founders of Google did their own searching, and then indirectly killed Yahoo.

Yahoo invested in Ahri shrewdly once, and the rest of the investment was simply terrible.

Forget it if you miss Google, but also reduce the price and lead to the failure of the acquisition of Facebook, and miss the sale to Microsoft at a high price......

These things are no strangers to this group of Silicon Valley investors.

Seeing that Howard has been being depressed by investors in Google and Uber, shareholders such as Shen Beipeng can't stand it.

Shen Beipeng said: "Huimin Travel carried out a C round of financing after the spin-off of Green, and its C round of investors valued Green at $1 billion, and finally Huimin Travel subtracted $1 billion from the total valuation. ”

"Mr. White, Mr. Hamilton, Google and Uber are all trying to make a big splash in the field of mobility, so why don't they have Green as an ally for short-distance travel?"

Xu Xiaoming also did his homework, analyzed the investment motives of Google and Uber, and explained the true meaning in one sentence.

Google has Google Maps, has invested in Uber, and is still doing driverless driving, so it is obvious that it is looking at the field of mobility.

Not to mention Uber, which is engaged in online car-hailing all over the world. China's Didi also wants to make shared bicycles bigger and stronger, let alone Uber.

"Mr. Shen, Mr. Xu, you two also want to participate in Green's Series A financing?" White asked.

"Of course, Green is a company that we are very optimistic about, and we will definitely not miss this kind of quality project. ”

Shen Beipeng also nodded, echoing Xu Xiaoming's statement.

For the two of them, they invested in the golden rooster of Huimin Travel, but they didn't expect to lay the golden egg of Green.

It felt like there was no money, and an investment was made in exchange for a stake in two companies.

Huimin Travel spun off Green, this kind of unicorn hatching unicorns, is relatively rare in the world.

This kind of small probability event has happened to them, and they feel quite lucky.

And looking at the development trend of Green, there are also very good development prospects, and the two of them will certainly not miss this investment opportunity.

"Penguins should also participate in co-investment!"

"SoftBank also wants to participate in co-investment!"

"GICs should follow suit!"

"I also want our Gaoling Capital!"

......

When other investors saw Shen and Xu speak, they also took a stand.

Howard also smiled and said, "Mr. White, Mr. Hamilton, you can also see that Green has no shortage of sought-after investors.

We are willing to choose Uber and Google, and we hope that we can form a strategic partnership with each other. ”

"Okay!"

Hamilton nodded, "We at Uber agree to this valuation, but with one condition. ”

"What conditions?" Howard asked.

"We hope that Green can do some technical integration with the Uber app, so that Uber users can rent Green scooters through our app. ”

"It's a great proposition, why not?

Howard stood up and shook Hamilton's hand with a smile on his face.

"Hopefully this valuation won't make us Google a joke in Silicon Valley. ”

Howard replied with a smile: "Looking back in a few years, this must be another glorious stroke in your investment career, Mr. White." ”

"I hope so!"

Google and Uber, which led the investment, agreed to a $1 billion valuation, and the original shareholders had no opinion.

Soon, a $250 million Series A funding round was finalized, with Google and Uber each leading $100 million.

The share of 50 million US dollars is not easy to divide, and many investment institutions such as Zhenke Fund, Black Shirt Capital, SoftBank, Penguin, GIC, Silver Lake Capital, Warburg Pincus and many other investment institutions want to occupy more shares.

After arguing for a long time, more than a dozen investment institutions finally divided the share of 50 million US dollars equally.

"By the way, there's one more question. ”

White said suddenly.

Investors in attendance all looked at it, and White continued: "I've looked at the current share composition, and if you don't count the dilution of Series A financing, the option pool is only 4%.

Such a small share is not enough to motivate the management team. ”

Howard was immediately impressed by White, who was still "tricky and mean" just now, the boss is magnificent!

Seeing that Green's original shareholders didn't speak, White knew that this was diluting their shares, and it was not happy to change anyone.

White doesn't care so much, and it is also beneficial for Google to reset the option pool before raising funds, avoiding dilution of shares.

White continued: "It stands to reason that the company's option pool shouldn't be so small.

The main reason is that Green is under the control of Huimin Travel, which leads to the dilution of the option pool.

Green is only a startup that has been established for less than a year, and the Series A funding has not yet been completed, and the 4% option pool is not enough to motivate the performance of the management and attract talent. ”

The shareholders who came over from Huimin Travel did not speak, and they were also thinking about this "historical legacy" problem, and the 4% option pool was indeed a little too little.

"The option pool of startups is generally reserved for 10%-20%, and considering that Green is already a unicorn, the minimum value can be taken as appropriate.

I suggest that the original shareholders of Huimin Travel re-make up the option pool to 10%.

And then a Series A financing!"

Hamilton chimed in: "Mr. White is right, we need to set up the option pool first, and only the two of us can invest in it." ”

"Why don't you talk about setting up an option pool after completing the A round of financing?"

Xu Xiaoming began to sell stupidly, "Today's Series A financing has been negotiated, let's get down to business first!"