Luo Yonghao raised funds again! US$50 million, once called this "the last startup", has a luxurious lineup of investment institutions

Luo Yonghao’s AR startup ThinRedLine officially announced today that it has completed an angel round of financing of approximately US$50 million, with a post-money valuation of approximately US$200 million. It is reported that this round of financing was led by Meituan Longzhu, with participation from investment institutions such as Lanchi Venture Capital, Lenovo Venture Capital, Matrix Partners, DJI Innovations, ATM Capital, and well-known figures in the technology industry such as Li Wanqiang and Wu Yongming. Chuang Ling Capital serves as the exclusive financial advisor for this round of financing.

In June this year, after Luo Yonghao announced through Weibo that he had paid off his debt, he started a new round of entrepreneurship focusing on building an AR technology company. News of new company financing has been reported in the market many times before, and it was finally officially confirmed today.

Institutions are optimistic about AR technology companies

Public information shows that ThinRedLine Technology was founded in June 2022. It is another technology startup that Luo Yonghao joined after Smartisan Technology. The company aims to create the next generation personal computing device platform after smartphones.

In July, Luo Yonghao officially announced his intention to start a business in the AR field through a live broadcast room, and shared the HR email address of the new company, saying that he was recruiting a large number of talents for the company, mainly product managers and designers. There are currently no Engineer recruitment needs.

Tianyancha APP shows that the current "ThinRedLine" affiliated company is Beijing ThinRedLine Technology Co., Ltd. The company was established on July 25, 2018, with a registered capital of 100,000 yuan. Industrial and commercial information shows that the company's previous legal person was Xu Han, with Xu Han and Huang He holding 99% and 1% of the shares respectively. The current legal person has been changed to Feng Yaoyao, and the shareholders are Feng Yaoyao and Wang Anqi holding 99% and 1% respectively.

As for why he chose AR Technology Company, Luo Yonghao previously said that AR is the next generation computing platform and he wants to be the first to make something like the 2007 iPhone+iOS in the AR era and become the next platform for Apple. Same company.

He said that he is sure to win at the product level, but in this kind of platform-level war, good products alone are not enough, so he is also prepared to be acquired by big companies. If it doesn't work, he will make AR. Huami OV of the Times. Luo Yonghao said that he will put everything into starting a business. This is the last chance. He believes that he will definitely leave something to the world.

The investment institutions participating in this round of financing are also somewhat luxurious. The predecessor of Meituan Longzhu is the industrial fund initiated and established by Meituan. It previously focused on project investment in the large consumer field. In recent years, there have also been many investments in the technology field. Get involved. Lanchi Venture Capital is a dual-currency fund with RMB and US dollars. The scale of assets under management in China exceeds RMB 15 billion, with an average duration of 10 years. The interaction of hard technology and innovation is its key investment direction, and the business scope of Thin Red Line Technology is Just in line. Lenovo Venture Capital is CVC, a subsidiary of Lenovo, and Matrix Partners is also a well-known US dollar fund in the industry.

"Double Eleven" live broadcast sales hit a new high

On June 7 this year, Luo Yonghao announced his withdrawal from the management of "Make a Friend" and shifted his focus to AR entrepreneurial projects. At the same time, Luo Yonghao said that he will not leave the company completely and will still conduct two to three live broadcasts per month in the Make a Friend live broadcast room to bring goods.

During this year's "Double Eleven" period, Luo Yonghao, who announced his "quitting the Internet", reappeared in front of the public.

Lao Luo’s reason for participating in Taobao live broadcast this time is that someone should take care of the needs of men during Double Eleven. Luo Yonghao revealed in his personal WeChat video account and Weibo preview that "we have specially prepared a lot of good things for men who are not very good at shopping", including mobile phones, graphics cards, computers, new and unique digital products, big-name sports shoes and clothing, and big-name brands. Drinks etc.

In response to the move to join Taobao Live, Make a Friend said that the company continues to look for growth opportunities, and Luo Yonghao started live streaming on Taobao out of consideration for his own business development. In the future, anchors signed by Make a Friend, including Luo Yonghao, will also come to the live broadcast room to meet consumers.

As for the performance of Taobao live broadcast, Make a Friend revealed that on the night of Luo Yonghao’s Taobao premiere on October 24, the cumulative number of viewers in the live broadcast room was 26 million, and the number of fans increased by 1.1 million. According to estimates from a third-party platform, Luo Yonghao’s first Taobao live broadcast brought a total of approximately 210 million yuan. Among Taobao’s new anchors during the entire “Double Eleven” period, Luo Yonghao ranked first in terms of transaction volume.

Not only as an anchor, but also as an entrepreneur, speaker, Internet celebrity, teacher, and debtor? These are all labels on Luo Yonghao, who had started his own business many times before.

In 2000, when e-commerce had not yet emerged, Luo Yonghao sent a 10,000-word application letter to Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental. With this letter and three trial lectures, Luo Yonghao successfully took up the post and entered New Oriental to teach. Later, he became one of New Oriental's most famous teachers with "Lao Luo's Quotations". Since then, Luo Yonghao has successively founded Niubo.com and Lao Luo English Training School, but due to various reasons, they were not continued.

In 2012, 40-year-old Luo Yonghao announced the founding of Smartisan Technology and entered the mobile phone industry with confidence. After 6 years of hard struggle, at the end of 2018, Smartisan Technology’s capital chain broke, and 46-year-old Luo Yonghao owed 600 million in debt. Later, Smartisan Technology, which was in crisis, was taken over by ByteDance. Carrying a huge debt, he seized the opportunity of live broadcasting. Starting from April 1, 2020, he launched his first live broadcast on the Douyin platform, performing "True Return" in which he paid off 600 million in debt in 4 years.

Luo Yonghao, who is determined to start a business and has both success and failure experiences, may be the most popular serial entrepreneur in the eyes of investors. Therefore, an investor once said: "I want to invest even in him." Invest in him." The development trends of Thin Red Line Technology will also become the focus of the investment circle in the future.