Lin Yi and Wang Xing's "Non-Aggression Pact" is not much more effective than toilet paper, and neither of them will presumably let their guard down because of this.

However, the timely closure of each group is a big relief for investors, because it avoids a needless competition to burn money.

They were still very satisfied with Lin Yi's handling this time, they didn't pay any price, and they relied on their strength to keep each group of vicious dogs out.

Taking advantage of this enthusiasm, Lin Yi thought about doing one thing in the plan.

"When Wanli Chuxing merged with Dututu, I promised to raise the valuation in the next round of financing."

"Now that it's been half a year since that time, and I have a good relationship with investors, I think it's time to make good on that promise."

"In addition, there is one more thing that we are clear, if nothing else, this should be the last round of financing before Wanli Travel goes public."

Regardless of the merger, this should be Wanli's F round of financing, but the company's current situation is often referred to as a pre-IPO round.

The reason why this round is special is that when startups consider going public at this stage, generally speaking, the business scale and market share have reached a certain level, which means that the industry competition is the winner.

There is usually a price difference between the primary market and the secondary market, which means that the market value is generally expected to rise even higher after listing.

Therefore, the pre-IPO round is a time with less risk and more certainty of returns.

This is a fragrant bait, Lin Yi's previous investment in King Ning's era had a bit of this meaning, who to give and who not to give is actually sophisticated.

Of course, there are a lot of unspoken rules, and some people who are very energetic like to play the autumn breeze at this stage, and if they don't give it, they can't go to the market, commonly known as buying road money.

Lin Yi is not afraid of that, although now everyone thinks that the listing he said is to go to the United States, in fact, his target is the Hong Kong City Stock Exchange.

Choosing the U.S. may have an advantage in valuation in the short term, and the listing conditions are more relaxed, but there will be a lot of trouble in the future.

Of course, Lin Yi would not step on other people's pits again.

"The company is actually not short of money, and after the merger with Dudu, the subsidy expenditure has been greatly reduced, and it has been completely eliminated by the end of last year."

"Since then, the performance has entered a relatively stable and uniform development stage, and the main business has basically achieved breakeven, and we are thinking about the goal of annual profitability."

"You've cut all the businesses that aren't profitable, and now you're spending money on investment in bike-sharing, car building, and autonomous driving in partnership with bear factories."

"On paper, the company doesn't have much need for financing, at least not urgently."

Of course, it was CFO Liu Jianni who discussed this matter with Lin Yi, but this does not mean that she does not approve of this financing, because she then asked:

"What else do you plan to accomplish this round besides valuation?"

"Although our new business has not yet reached the stage of large-scale investment, it is okay to hold a little more cash reserves, and we can't wait until the time to actually spend money to ask for money," Lin said.

"The other thing is to balance the relationship between the various stakeholders and try to meet their requirements as much as possible."

Wanlixing's shareholders' meeting may be called the most complex in the industry, gathering the three major beasts of BAT, as well as a large number of well-known venture capital institutions.

However, the situation in this round was a little simpler than Lin Yi expected, because everyone's enthusiasm for subscription was not enthusiastic.

Jianni Liu reported two reasons.

"One is that the valuation we are seeking this time is relatively high, reaching $50 billion before the investment, which is already more than Uber in the United States."

"Outside investors have expressed their dissatisfaction, believing that we have been integrating the mainland market for about half a year, but we have not continued to make progress and cannot support this valuation."

"But the investors in the previous rounds are satisfied, because the previous round has already risen by about 50%, and their returns are considerable."

"The second is that the company is in good financial condition now, and most of the investors are there

We expect to be able to achieve profitability this year, so the willingness to co-invest is not high."

Lin Yi didn't feel sorry, he opened the conditions relatively high, originally wanted to block part of it, in fact, he was the main intended investor.

"What did Masayoshi Son say?"

"SoftBank also thinks that our valuation is relatively high and is still talking, but I think it is possible for the other party to approve because they want to invest a large amount."

Lin Yi had promised Son Masayoshi before that after the Vision Fund was raised, he would give him another chance to increase his holdings, but of course it couldn't be too cheap.

The final result did not let him out, and SoftBank finally agreed.

They put in $5 billion.

In this way, the amount of this round is already very small, and other investors did not follow suit, because it is easy to be dwarfed by fewer shots, so they simply gave up this opportunity to play a one-man show for SoftBank.

Son is really optimistic about mobility, and he is also prepared to shell out a fortune for both Uber and its rivals.

Of course, Lin Yi has no obligation to remind him that the valuation of taxi software is now close to historical highs, and there is not much room for growth in the future.

However, it is worth noting that after this round of financing, SoftBank's shareholding in Wanli Travel alone has been higher than 10%.

Considering that Factory A has always had a close relationship with SoftBank, and often appears as a de facto concerted actor at the time of investment, they still have a great say in the company.

Correspondingly, after the huge amount of money arrived, Lin Yi's shareholding in the company also dropped to a new low.

Before the merger of Wanli Travel and Dudu Dache, Lin alone held less than 30% of the shares, and after the merger, it was only more than 14%.

After this round of funding, it will continue to decline to 13%.

With the current situation of Wanli Travel, Lin Yi doesn't care about who wants to drive him down from his position, but with Cheng Wei's bloody example in front, it is better to prepare early.

Lin Yi is already planning to adopt the structure of AB shares when he goes public next year to ensure that he can maintain the advantage of voting rights with a small number of shares.

As soon as the news came out that Wanli Travel raised $5 billion and reached a post-investment valuation of $55 billion, it routinely triggered a wave of exclamations.

But in fact, there is not much public repercussions, because at this time, the heat of the taxi war has passed, but everyone doesn't know what to do after it has melted so much money.

In contrast, another thing is more interesting to the people who eat melons.

Although many of the details of the transaction are not public, as a non-listed company with so many investors, the transparency of Wanli Travel is already very high.

Therefore, well-informed media inquired that Lin Yi's personal net worth has exceeded $7 billion after this round, and he continues to maintain the status of "the richest man born in the 90s from scratch".

For Lin Yi, the biggest significance of this matter is that Wanli Travel has completed the equity sorting before the listing, and there is no expected change before the IPO.

Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed.