The year before last, four US dollar funds were raised, and Gao Rong officially said AUM150 billion yuan. The scale of dual-currency funds has reached 28 billion yuan, including 5 US dollar funds, 1, 65,438+0.5 billion US dollars. The details of the RMB fund have not been announced, but after calculation, the figures are considerable.

What does the new fund mean? The words in the manuscript see the real chapter.

The first is the attraction of fundraising. In the past two years, GP likes to talk about fund-raising. Gao Rong's fifth financing11.50 billion dollars, which lasted for nearly a month, highlighted the word "fast". This can also remind peers that the US dollar fundraising market of Head GP is very good.

Another is the scale, with 28 billion nearly doubled compared with 654.38+0.5 billion. If you draw a curve, it will suddenly become steep. Presumably, Gaochun's investment rhythm will be accelerated and the coverage stage will be backward.

Besides, where can we raise so much money? Compared with the caliber of the fourth issue, Gao Rong refined the "new technology" and clearly listed three lines: artificial intelligence, robot and chip. In addition, he also emphasized medical technology-the hot track recently. There is no doubt that this year's investors are hard technology and medical care, and the competition is fierce. Gao Rong, who has entered the market, has enough ammunition.

The fourth and most representative point is the direction of fund-raising. Dollar fund raising is fast, mainly relying on institutional LP. Founder's fund strategy this time is biased towards RMB funds, with a clear purpose: "The founders or core executives of many top TMT companies and traditional giant enterprises have also become important investors", which matches the investment direction of the new fund very accurately.

What are the core competitiveness and uniqueness of Gao Rong Capital in the past six years? Zhang zhen may be the only venture capitalist who made the right choice in every aspect of investing cases from insight, and obtained more than $2 billion in a single case. Since it is said that "it is right for LP people to praise Zhang zhen", it must be pointed out, so let's start with the General Staff Department in Gao Rong.

1

Strange General Staff of Gao Rong

There is a research center in Gao Rong, which has a unique nickname called "General Staff Department of Gao Rong".

It is a strange thing for Gao Rong to establish the General Staff.

This name is not strange. Zhang zhen was born in a military compound. This is not the first time that he used the military organizational system to describe VC. For example, he used to have such a sentence to explain the partnership. "I am the head of the team, focusing on strategic choice and organizational system. Gao Xiang is a political commissar with strong cohesion and is good at training teams. Yue Bin is the chief of staff, very keen and very sensitive to new trends. "

The study itself is not surprising. It is said that investment needs to understand the industry, investment and research should be combined with two-wheel drive for a long time, and the long-term competitiveness of venture capital certainly depends on the construction of research ability.

So, what's so strange about Gao Rong's research?

What's strange is the organizational structure. As a research institute, there is a paradox behind Gao Rong's research list. Does the organizational structure of the research institute living in the middle and back office actually support the investment decision? The answer is none. Or to put it more speculatively, it is called "to a large extent." This problem has been verified by many established institutions.

In the early years, Sequoia set up a research institute, and then Guo Shanshan, who has invested in well-known cases such as Zhongtong, Dada and Pinduoduo, entered Sequoia Research Institute as an analyst. At first, I was in charge of coldcall and research, and the direction changed several times, such as energy, consumption, logistics and TMT. A few years later, Sequoia cancelled the research institute on the grounds that background research did not provide substantive support for investment decision-making. Guo Shanshan transferred to DealTeam, and then began to make achievements.

So is Gao Ling. This institution, which is famous for its research ability, has also done background research on direct service investment. It soon found itself "unworkable" and extended its research capabilities to the investment team.

Isn't Zhang zhen aware of the behavior of research institutions in forging investment decisions? He should be very clear. You know, Zhang zhen after 70 is still young, but he is already an "old gun". He joined IDG in 2002, when the school was called "China VC Whampoa Military Academy". After spending 12 years in the military academy, he must have witnessed the role change of the institute.

In addition, unlike many of his peers, Zhang zhen has long-term and continuous research on venture capital. At the beginning of his career, he studied the history of American venture capital industry. In previous interviews, he also talked about his views on Sequoia America, Benchmark and Bridgewater, and even his graduation thesis in Wudaokou MBA was "The Inheritance System of Sequoia America".

This question is interesting. Since he knows the organizational structure of VC like the back of his hand, knowing that the combination of research and investment is not in the middle and backstage, why should Gao Rong do research? There is only one answer: building talents. Moreover, the growth trajectory of two young people is a ready-made example.

One is Wu Ge, vice president of Gao Rong Capital Investment. Angkor is a "young investor coming out of the research center". When Gao Rong was founded six months ago, Wu Ge, a student, worked as an intern analyst in IDG and Gao Rong respectively. 20 15 After graduating from Columbia University, Wu Ge joined Gao Rong Capital as a senior analyst. Three years later, in 20 18, Wu Ge was selected as a venture capitalist of Forbes China 30Under30.

In addition to Angkor, there is a more widely known powerful character, Han Rui. When various lists appeared last year, this person was the managing director, and this year he changed his partner title. In the sixth year, Gao Rong was promoted to the first partner other than the three founding partners. Han Rui graduated from Oxford University and worked for China Investment Company. He joined Gao Rong Capital two months before he was four years old. More than one person who has been in contact with Han Rui said that this person "looks powerful with the naked eye". More specifically, he voted for Gao Rong in a down-to-earth manner, such as Danke Apartment, Perfect Diary, Shopping in Ding Dong, Aunt Qian, Sleeping in the Forest, and Love Parking.

In other words, since its establishment six years ago, Gao Rong has not only had a super case of many products, but also built a talent training system. It's not important to make the system, but the key is the achievement. The two people have obviously used it up. Therefore, this is definitely not just a question of talent construction, which hides Zhang zhen's ultimate understanding of "investment".

What do you mean you are willing to use the "talent training institutions" in the middle and back office to build the company? This means that what Zhang zhen wants to achieve is a professional goal, not a simple business goal. In other words, in Zhang zhen's priority ranking, it is more likely to be the founder of a long-term, sustainable and inheritable investment institution, rather than "robbing the case" and "making more money".

Zhang zhen's mind about his career is called "making contributions", and people also like to praise his "big pattern". Although these are all big words, they are very accurate. He works from top to bottom, like an eagle hovering in the sky for a long time. Many people make VC case-driven, business-driven, and return-driven, but Gao Rong worked hard on the organizational structure from the beginning, which is the totem of "making contributions".

This trait almost runs through Zhang zhen's growing process.

He grew up in the military compound, and his childhood wish was to be a general. Since then, his life trajectory has also embarked on the road of "maximizing influence". In 1990s, the slogan of "ruling the country by industry" resounded throughout the country. He was admitted to Tsinghua University and studied engineering. When he noticed that most American presidents were born in law, he immediately minored in double bachelor of law; Later, he found that law seems to be more of an auxiliary tool in China, and business is the center that can better display resources, influence and initiative. So, he applied for a master's degree in management from the School of Economics and Management.

After graduating from graduate school, Zhang zhen could have studied for a doctor's degree in management with a monthly salary of 20,000 yuan and obtained shares, but he refused this lucrative and stable job. The reason is that he helps a listed company to make a consulting report. Seeing that the report he worked so hard to write was thrown aside by the enterprise, he realized that what mattered was not his own ideas, but the resources and relationships of his mentor.

When he graduated, he chose IDG Capital, a venture capital institution that was not well-known at that time and whose salary was even lower, from the offer he received from 10. The same logic behind this. Zhang zhen once bought a book to study the history of venture capital in the United States, and came to the conclusion that it was the power of capital that determined the rapid development of science and technology in the United States in the past 20 years, and the same history will definitely repeat itself in China.

2

The ultimate case of Founder Fund

From Zhang zhen's point of view, it is necessary to redefine Pinduoduo.

Looking back at VC2.0 first, although only Zhang zhen shouted out the concept of founder fund, Gao Rongyuan was not the only one who raised funds for the newly rich and entrepreneurs. Zhang zhen later talked about fund-raising. The first phase of the fund was more than 200 million US dollars, and it was close in three months. Persuading the big boss to join is "easier than expected".

This is easy to understand. Entrepreneurs need to manage their money and allocate their assets. Zhang zhen, Gao Xiang and Yue Bin have dealt with everyone with good resumes and a high starting point of GP. It shouldn't be difficult to invest some money to join. On the other hand, it is easy to convince, which also proves that these LPs did not have high expectations at that time. At least it is hard to say that Gao Rong at that time was more worth looking forward to than other peers.

But in retrospect, LPs were right when they praised Zhang zhen.

There are many projects where VC makes a lot of money, but there are only a handful of cases where the return exceeds $2 billion. In numerical order, what is Pinduoduo? This is a case that can push Gao Rong into business history. But this is not enough to show that Pinduoduo is unique to Gao Rong. More importantly, Pinduoduo is an unprecedented case for Zhang zhen. It started with an insight and finally earned more than 2 billion dollars.

The initial opinion is: the financing opportunities of the new rich. These people have money on the one hand and resources on the other. VC's utilization of resources is divided into two layers, one is procurement, and the other is post-investment service. It can be said that the funds that chose this fundraising strategy at that time also had similar opinions: raising funds from the new rich, using them to find projects, placing bets, investing, IPO, quitting and getting returns.

Regarding the case of Pinduoduo, the public information is described as follows: Gao Rong studied investment opportunities around the online Costco model and met with almost all relevant domestic companies. LP Sun Tongyu gave the project clue in Pinduoduo, and then there was the classic 15 minutes-Zhang zhen only talked with Huang Zheng 15 minutes, and then decided to invest. Gao Rong not only led the A and B rounds of financing in Pinduoduo, but also continued to follow suit, with a total investment of not less than $65.438 billion, and obtained enough shares. When Pinduoduo went public, everyone knew that Gao Rong earned the most return. Zhang zhen kept his mouth shut about those figures.

What is the hardest part of investing? It is "the investment is right, and the investment logic is right." What a long logical chain is this? Starting from a feeling, how many heavy links did it take before it finally paid off? How difficult is it and how small is the probability? Therefore, anyone can talk about the concept of Founder Fund, but from the results, only a case of Gao Rong's investment in Pinduoduo can give the ultimate explanation, which proves the ability and insight of investors in an almost extreme form.

three

The ability to break the intergenerational relationship of entrepreneurs

Zhang zhen is ambitious, but he can't hold his breath. He and his LP friends also have a similar saying, called duty. This determines that Gao Rong has a strong continuity in doing things, and many things are not done for nothing. When he sets out, he can get results: for example, if he finds insight, he will really get more than 2 billion dollars in return; For example, doing research institutes will really cultivate talents.

Judging from the funds raised, the scale of Gao Rong Capital Dollar Fund has grown steadily, with the disclosed funds of 1-4 being $200 million, $362 million, $400 million and $500 million respectively. It should be noted that Pinduoduo was listed on 20 18, which means that Gao Rong Capital is already a young institution with super cases. It is not difficult to imagine what appeal it will have in the fundraising market, but the subsequent four fundraising growth rates are still around 1 100 million US dollars, which has not broken the existing fundraising curve. Until this year coincides with the market trough, it may be a good year. Gao Rong finally raised funds, raising more than 654.38+000 billion yuan.

In addition, Zhang zhen's business strategy of entrepreneur relationship is also continuous.

Gao Rong Capital's first dollar fund was raised by institutional investors and newly rich people, but in order to establish long-term fundraising ability, the second fund-raising direction will inevitably turn to institutional investors. As a way for Gao Rong to continue the fundraising route for entrepreneurs, it is to set up a sidefund. The third and fourth US dollar funds have set up a side fund for Gao Rong's team and entrepreneurs.

The details are getting more and more specific. For example, since the third phase of the US dollar fund, Gao Rong has stopped charging management fees to individual LP. Of course, it's not Lei Feng who doesn't charge management fees. Obviously, it is more targeted to realize the specific demands of these entrepreneurs from resources and services.

There are two differences in Gao Rong's fundraising strategy for entrepreneurs: first, the scope of entrepreneurs is wider and there are more people; Second, Gao Rong has broken generations of entrepreneurs.

Besides Zhang zhen's mentor Sun Tongyu and IDG's veteran leader Zhou Quan and Xiong Xiaoge, Gao Rong officially announced dozens of entrepreneurs. Official website shows that the founders of Tencent, Baidu, Taobao, Xiaomi, Meituan, Dianping, 360, Focus Media, Weibo, Sohu, JD.COM, Vipshop, Tudou, car home and Jiji.com are all investors of Gao Rong Capital. This includes the entrepreneurs of the first two generations, especially the top people. Now that Pinduoduo has come out, there must be a GP knocking at the yellow gate, but no one can squeeze in front of Gao Rong.

For VC investors, the grasp of contacts may be one of the core competitiveness. The most concentrated embodiment of this kind of competitiveness, or the best proof of investors' deep understanding of people, is whether the intergenerational relationship can be broken, so as to establish "for our use" business relations and interpersonal relationships. From this point of view, Zhang zhen has never been an aloof lone wolf, and he has handled this matter perfectly.

The column introduction of Negative Film: Dismantle the most valuable cases, record the most noteworthy people, and provide reading value for GP, LP and readers with the writing method of "analysis+sketch". Another context is to see through the investment value.