On April 8, Superman announced that it had completed a new round of financing of $1 billion.

The new investors include a number of world-renowned investors such as Capital International Private Equity Fund and Ping An Innovation Investment Fund.

After the completion of this round of financing, Superman will have more than $2 billion in cash reserves and the company will be valued at about $21 billion.

Guan Huang, chairman and CEO of the company, said in an interview with China Economic News,

After two or three years of development, Superman has firmly established its leading position in China's mobility and food delivery market, and has sufficient advantages in terms of platform, technology, team and other aspects.

In the field of local living, Superman has a better opportunity than any other company, and the company will continue to grow rapidly in the future, and will also launch more new businesses and services, build a complete ecosystem, and truly realize the vision of "Better City for Life".

……

The leader's speech is in this style, covered by clouds and mountains, and it seems that he has said a lot, but there is nothing substantive at all.

Hearing the news of Superman's financing, Uber (China) couldn't sit still, reacted quickly,-for-tat, and there were rumors that Uber (China) would raise $1 billion, with a valuation of $8 billion after financing.

The mobility market is once again in full swing.

The big war is about to break out.

Zhang Taijie's movements were still very fast, and after getting Guan Huang's permission, he quickly arranged a meeting time.

Karanik is a typical white image, and before they met, Guan Huang relied on news reports to think that this kind of person was inherently unruly.

Aggressive, ambitious, and driven, he doesn't play his cards according to common sense.

After meeting, it seemed a little different from what I imagined, wearing a suit, greeting polite and easy-going, a typical IT boy.

However, as we talked, his shrewdness and acuity soon became apparent.

"Mr. Guan, Uber (Global) will conduct a new round of financing of about $3 billion, and the market valuation after the financing will exceed $70 billion."

Behemoth, the world's most valuable private company.

Guan Huang smiled, "Your total financing amount is more than 10 billion US dollars? ”

"Yes, a record for raising funds for an unlisted high-tech company in the United States", Karanik is a little smug in his aggressiveness.

Guan Huang asked: "The purpose of this financing?" ”

"This round of financing is a strategic round of financing, which includes partnering with other companies or acquiring other businesses. ”

In the past, Uber's main purpose in financing was to expand its business.

Guan Huang smiled, "Coincidentally, we also have this consideration in this financing, and we have just invested $80 million in our American counterpart, Lyft, and the two sides have established a partnership." ”

Karanik knew that Lyft was also making services, but the scale was not large, far from being a threat, and it could only be regarded as an ordinary competitor, so he didn't care and said,

"You don't have the same vision for choosing a company as you do for a leading company, and investing in Lyft is better than investing in Uber."

Guan Huang: "Yes, then remember to inform me next time you raise money." ”

Karanik said perfunctorily, "Yes." ”

Guan Huang stopped beating around the bush and asked directly, "I don't know if you ...... this time"

Karanick: "Although Uber (China) is starting to operate, I would like to ask if Superman is willing to accept Uber (Global)'s investment. ”

Guan Huang shook his head, "I haven't considered this for the time being." ”

Karanik stared at him, "You can go back and think about it." ”

Guan Huang: "Superman's financing development has its own pace and is not subject to any external influence. ”

Kalanick: "It would be a shame if that happened. ”

Guan Huang didn't speak,

Kalanick suddenly laughed, "I now kind of regret that I entered China too late, the investors here are so enthusiastic, we spent 2 billion to acquire the business of 'Kuaidi Didi', plus our brand influence, the valuation has reached 8 billion US dollars, this is a magical place, I am full of confidence in the business in China." ”

Guan Huang said unceremoniously: "Kuaidi and Didi, our subordinates are defeated, we just beat them in the market, I think, it is not difficult to repeat this process again." ”

Kalahnik laughed, "Market competition, in the final analysis, is just a matter of money, I have studied your money burning war, the biggest mistake of fast companies is the dispersion of financing, if you put two billion dollars into one company, instead of four companies, I think the result will be very different." ”

Guan Huang: "In that case, let's see the real chapter under our hands." ”

Karanik shrugged.

Guan Huang said before leaving, "Uber has raised so much, presumably your voting power has dropped to less than 20%, Mr. Karanick, you have never worried about control?" ”

Hearing Guan Huang say this, Karanick's face changed.

Guan Huang continued, "When things are going well, with your prestige, you can naturally suppress all opposition voices, and if the Chinese market loses and triggers a chain reaction in other markets, I don't know if you can still control the situation." ”

Kalahnik clasped his hands to his chest, "You don't have to worry about that. ”

Guan Huang laughed "haha" and turned to leave.

Two years later, Uber was flooded with negative news.

Sexual harassment and a culture of sexism prevail in the company, growth is everything, and the top management turns a blind eye to it, or even favors it.

Taxi drivers in New York go on strike to protest the new government's immigration ban. But Uber in New York has allowed its own cars to provide services in the surrounding area, causing strong dissatisfaction.

Karanik previously joined the new government's Council of Economic Advisers, knowing that the new government is against immigration, and most of the taxi drivers are immigrants.

In order to prohibit cheating, Uber bypassed Apple's privacy regulations and manipulated, causing Tim Cook to be angry.

……

Eventually, the entire Internet set off a "delete Uber" movement.

More than 200,000 users uninstalled Uber and switched to Lyft, Uber's biggest competitor.

Under the storm, the major shareholder Benchmark Capital convened the board of directors and held a meeting for more than six hours.

All directors unanimously decided to fire the company's second-in-command, then give Karanik an indefinite leave of absence, and then purge Karanik's cronies (more than 20 senior and mid-level personnel).

This is not over, in order to prevent the return of Karanik, Benchmark Capital did another thing that surprised the industry very much, and sued Karanik in court.

The charge is to deliberately conceal from the board of directors major problems in the company's management and other misconduct, etc., and demand compensation from Karanik, hoping that Karanik will leave the company's board of directors and management, and then reduce the number of board seats to eight.

At this point, a generation of heroes has withdrawn.