The largest unicorn in Southeast Asia is listed: Originally from Fujian, he made 200 billion

The largest SPAC listing in history was officially born.

Last night (December 2), Grab, which was known as the Southeast Asian version of Didi in the early years, successfully listed on the Nasdaq through SPAC, creating the largest SPAC merger transaction in history. On the first day of listing, Grab opened 18% higher, then fell more than 20%. The total market value on that day reached US$34.5 billion (approximately over 200 billion yuan).

This morning, Didi Chuxing issued an announcement saying: After careful study, the company will start delisting from the New York Stock Exchange and start preparations for listing in Hong Kong.

The person who created Grab, the super unicorn, is a young Chinese born in the 1980s - Chen Bingyao. Originally from Anxi County, Fujian, Chen Bingyao was born in Malaysia in 1982. In 2011, while still studying for an MBA at Harvard, he and his friend Chen Huiling began planning a business to change Malaysia's chaotic traffic. The next year, he founded Grab regardless of family opposition. In the past nine years, Grab has successfully fought off the invasion of travel giants Uber and Didi, and has grown into a super APP that integrates travel, food delivery and mobile payment.

To dominate Southeast Asia, Grab’s financing scale along the way is also staggering. Crunchbase data shows that as of March this year, Grab has raised more than US$12 billion (approximately more than 75 billion yuan) through 33 financing rounds, bringing together SoftBank, Vertex Investment, GGV Capital, Hillhouse, CDH Investment, Alibaba , Didi, Toyota and other investors. Among them, Grab’s largest shareholder is SoftBank, headed by Masayoshi Son.

As the largest gathering area for overseas Chinese, Chinese entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia are creating unicorns in batches-Sichuan native Li Jie created the Southeast Asian express delivery giant J&T Express, Southeast Asia's "little Tencent" Sea was created by Tianjin Li Xiaodong, and there are Chinese people behind Razer, "Indonesian version of Qunar" Traveloka, etc... Overcoming all obstacles, a new generation of Chinese people began to step onto the stage of history.

The largest unicorn in Southeast Asia is listed

Originally from Fujian, the third generation of Chinese born in the 1980s is at the helm

This is a hearty and inspirational story - a queen from a famous family. He gave up inheriting the family business and devoted himself to starting a business.

Born in 1982, Chen Bingyao’s ancestral home comes from Anxi County, Fujian. Many years ago, his ancestors left their small mountain village in their hometown and traveled to Southeast Asia to make a living in Malaysia. Thanks to the unremitting efforts and hard work of his ancestors and fathers, Tan Chong Automobile, which later became Malaysia's "automobile empire", was born, and Tan Bingyao was able to grow up in an environment where he had no worries about food and clothing.

"But my family is a traditional Chinese family. My father has always had high expectations for us, and he firmly believes that children must work hard and prove themselves." Under Chen's father's strict education, in 2004 After graduating from the University of Chicago in 2011, Chen Bingyao returned to the family business and took charge of the company's supply chain and marketing departments. In order to improve his business skills, Chen Bingyao went to Harvard University to study for an MBA degree in 2009. It was also here that he began to become interested in entrepreneurship.

The real start of my business came from a comment from an old friend. One day in 2009, Chen Bingyao’s friend Chen Huiling complained to him about the poor state of the taxi industry in Malaysia. Chen Huiling said: "Your great-grandfather was a taxi driver, and your grandfather founded a car company in Malaysia, but your friends may still encounter a lot of safety problems when taking taxis. Why don't you do something about it?" ”

This casual complaint inspired Chen Bingyao, who was ready to start a business. The two hit it off and worked on the business plan non-stop: develop an application that allows users to find the nearest location on the crowded and chaotic streets of Malaysia. taxi driver. Since smartphones were not yet popular in Southeast Asia at that time, the business plan also mentioned providing mobile phones to taxi drivers. Two years later, in the Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Competition, Chen Bingyao and his friend’s idea won second place and received a bonus of US$25,000.

However, Chen Bingyao’s increasingly determined idea of ????starting a business has been dissatisfied by his family, who even threatened to deprive him of the right to inherit the family property. Despite this, Chen Bingyao resolutely chose to start a business. "At that time, Malaysia's taxi system was in a mess: the driver hated the job because he could not make enough money, and the female passengers were also panicked because of safety issues. We need to make some changes."

In June 2012, Chen Bingyao and Chen Huiling put their entrepreneurial ideas into reality. The online ride-hailing platform MyTeksi was officially launched, which is Grab, the super unicorn that will subvert the Southeast Asian travel industry in the future. The rise of a new thing is never easy, and Grab is no different.

In the early days of starting his business, Chen Bingyao visited areas frequented by taxi drivers such as airports, shopping malls, and gas stations, but was repeatedly rejected. It was not until he mentioned his grandfather who was also a taxi driver that he triggered an uproar and reluctantly I got the opportunity to cooperate with a business that only operated 30 taxis, and then embarked on the road of wild growth.

According to official website information, after its establishment in June 2012, Grab started in Malaysia and successively entered the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and other regions, becoming the largest taxi-hailing application in Southeast Asia. At the same time, Grab has also launched many segmented businesses to meet the diverse needs of the market, including motorcycle reservation platform GrabBike, ride-sharing service GrabHitch, food delivery service Grab, mobile payment Grabpay, etc.

After 9 years, Chen Bingyao led his team to create the largest unicorn company in Southeast Asia, and finally went public as expected - on December 2, Eastern Time, Grab successfully landed on Nasdaq as a SPAC. The market value reaches 200 billion yuan. This year, 39-year-old Chen Bingyao holds 2.2% of Grab shares and has also ushered in the highlight moment of his life.

Looking back on the opposition and incomprehension he experienced on the road to entrepreneurship, he once lamented: "It's hard for my family to understand what I want to do, and I don't blame them. Before embarking on this journey, you need to Realize that for startups, if you want to win and grow quickly, you have to make a lot of personal sacrifices."

Crazy scene: more than 70 billion in financing in 9 years

My mother is an angel investor, and SoftBank is the largest shareholder

Along the way, Grab’s financing history has been equally exciting.

In 9 years, Grab has assembled a vast team of investors. Crunchbase data shows that as of March 2021, Grab has raised more than US$12 billion (approximately more than 75 billion yuan) through 33 financings, bringing together SoftBank, Vertex Investment, GGV Capital, Hillhouse, CDH Investment, There are more than 30 investors including Alibaba, Didi and Toyota.

Hidden among these VC/PE and giant companies, there is also a mysterious angel investor - Chen Bingyao's mother. Back then, when all his family members denied Chen Bingyao's dream, only his mother stood up to support him and became Grab's first investor. Although his mother admits she still doesn't understand the project's business model, she hopes her son's career will succeed.

Vertex Investment is Grab’s first institutional investor. In 2013, Vertex Investment Management Partner Zheng Juncong was in close contact with Didi, which had just emerged, but later failed to invest due to various reasons. After that, Zheng Juncong, who travels between China and Singapore all year round, began to study the online ride-hailing travel model more deeply, and soon noticed Grab, which started in Malaysia.

One day not long after, Zheng Juncong met Chen Bingyao in Singapore. As soon as they met, he was attracted by the young man in front of him. The two chatted happily: Chen Bingyao talked about his desire to improve Malaysia and even Southeast Asia. The original intention of people's lives, Zheng Juncong shared Didi's development path in China from the perspective of investors.

This meeting confirmed Zheng Juncong’s idea of ??investing in Grab. In his opinion, Chen Bingyao’s courage to abandon his family’s halo and resolutely start a business is really rare. At the same time, his entrepreneurial philosophy and desire to succeed are rare. Faith was also rare in the Southeast Asian venture capital circle at that time. “He was the entrepreneur that Xiangfeng wanted to invest in.” Zheng Juncong told the investment community, “He is very pragmatic and really wants to help the people at the bottom. He has both entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurial sentiment. Founder of Grab. ”

In less than a month, Vertex Investment completed the investment, becoming Grab’s first institutional investor since its establishment, and continued to increase investment in the subsequent two rounds of financing. Note. Zheng Juncong revealed to the investment community that in the Grab project, Vertex Investment has injected a total of more than 20 million US dollars. In addition to the funds, it has also provided advice on the company’s strategies such as developing Singapore business and expanding its payment business. “Over the years, we have maintained Close contact, Anthony (Chen Bingyao) even mentioned that Xiangfeng was more affectionate than his family," Zheng Juncong recalled.

Among Grab’s early investors are GGV Capital, Hillhouse, and Qunar. In 2014, GGV Capital Management Partner Foo Jixun met Chen Bingyao at Starbucks in Singapore Plaza. That day, a young man with a strong physique and a smile came forward. "He was very polite and full of confidence." Fu Jixun said.

After listening to Chen Bingyao's thoughts, Fu Jixun felt the strong determination of the young man in front of him to succeed, "Anthony has never thought about making money from the family - he wants to start his own business independently. This way Fu Jixun was deeply moved by the internal driving force. Later, after investigating Grab’s Malaysian business, GGV Capital led Grab’s Series B financing.

Talking about this investment, Foo Jixun said: "Since we met Anthony (Chen Bingyao) in 2014, we have been deeply impressed by his entrepreneurial spirit. Success in the complex and diverse Southeast Asian market is not easy. In the past seven years, Anthony has led his team to develop this student project originally called MyTeksi into the super application it is today. GGV is very honored to participate in this process and witness this important milestone. We are very optimistic about Southeast Asia. With the development of the digital economy, we also hope to cooperate with more companies like Grab to support the development of the entire region."

But when it comes to the largest investor behind this listing, it is none other than SoftBank. Since the D round in 2014, the SoftBank Vision Fund helmed by Masayoshi Son has participated in almost every subsequent round of investment, with a cumulative capital injection of more than US$4.5 billion, giving Grab the strongest capital support. As an investor in both Grab and Uber, SoftBank is also the promoter of the merger of Grab and Uber's Southeast Asian businesses, which directly consolidates Grab's position in Southeast Asia's travel arena. To date, SoftBank holds a cumulative 18.6% stake in Grab and is the company’s largest shareholder.

With the help of powerful investors, Grab started out as a travel service in nine years. It not only won the fierce battle with local players such as Gojek, but also defeated foreign online ride-hailing giants such as Uber and Didi. It has also expanded its business to mobile payment, food delivery, etc. It can be called a combination of Didi, Meituan and Alipay, and has grown into the behemoth it is today.

As of the end of last year, Grab covered more than 400 cities in Southeast Asia, with more than 5 million registered drivers and more than 2 million merchants. This year, the COVID-19 epidemic promoted the demand for online takeout delivery platforms. The annual GMV (gross merchandise volume) reached US$12.5 billion, with total revenue of US$1.6 billion, but it still faced losses.

Chinese entrepreneurs are making a name for themselves in Southeast Asia

Unicorns are born one after another

In Southeast Asia, a group of Chinese are manufacturing unicorns in batches .

I have to mention Li Jie, the head of Jitu Express. He studied under Duan Yongping. There is almost no information about Li Jie's early years found on the Internet, only a few words: he was born in Sichuan, China, in 1967, and graduated from the School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, majoring in marketing. It wasn't until he entered the BBK company founded by Duan Yongping that Li Jie began to enter the public eye. From BBK to OPPO, he has won the sales championship every year and has made a mark in various regions. He is Duan Yongping's right-hand man. In 2013, Li Jie took the initiative to go to Indonesia and successfully opened up a new market for OPPO.

Two years later, at a press conference of OPPO Indonesia, Li Jie announced that he would step down as CEO of OPPO Indonesia and devote himself to his new business. In August of the same year, the express delivery company J&T Express was officially born. Relying on OPPO's resources, network system and mobile phone delivery business in Southeast Asia, J&T Express has covered the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries outside Indonesia in a few years, becoming the most powerful express delivery dark horse in Southeast Asia.

Dominating one side in Southeast Asia, J&T Express transformed into Jitu Express and quietly entered China in 2019, setting off a bloody new war. Originating in Southeast Asia, Jitu Express is now an unstoppable super unicorn in both Southeast Asia and China. Just at the end of October this year, this giant also spent 6.8 billion yuan to acquire Best Express. As the head of the company, Li Jie rarely appears in public. Many people close to Li Jie almost unanimously use the word "low-key" to describe this secretive boss.

Speaking of the hidden Chinese entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, Sea founder Li Xiaodong cannot be ignored. Sea is known as "Little Tencent in Southeast Asia" by people in the world, and Li Xiaodong is the soul of this unicorn company. Born in Tianjin, China in 1978, Li Xiaodong graduated from the Engineering Department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and later received an MBA degree from Stanford University in the United States. Here, he met Chen Ou, the founder of Jumei Youpin, and was invited to join the e-sports battle platform GGgame.

This is a company founded by Chen Ou when he was a university student in Singapore, but he left in 2008 due to various reasons. After Li Xiaodong took over the company, he renamed it Garena. Later, he moved from game development to platform game operation. He soon obtained the agency rights for the phenomenal game "League of Legends" in Southeast Asia, becoming the largest game platform in Southeast Asia in one fell swoop. Among the unicorns.

In 2017, after his business in Southeast Asia’s social, e-commerce, gaming and other sectors matured, Li Xiaodong once again changed the company’s name to Sea.

Here is a short episode: Hillhouse is also one of Sea’s investors. After Gan Jiawei joined Hillhouse, he was “lent” to Sea by Hillhouse, using his rich experience in Alibaba and Meituan to help Sea achieve rapid growth. increase. Today, Sea's total market value exceeds US$140 billion, and 43-year-old Li Xiaodong has become the richest man in Singapore with a net worth of US$19.8 billion.

There are also others such as: Chen Mingliang, who was born in a Chinese-Singaporean family, is the co-founder of Razer, a well-known gaming equipment manufacturer; Feili Yunadi, a Chinese-Indonesian, founded the "Indonesian version of Qunar. "Traveloka and so on. There is almost a similar logic behind the rise of these companies - as Hillhouse mentioned, this is the "going overseas" of China's Internet innovation model.

From the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China, many Chinese from Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan and other places chose to cross the ocean to make a living in Southeast Asia, which led to the famous population migration in modern Chinese history - going to Southeast Asia. In this way, the Chinese who went to Southeast Asia became the main force in local economic development. Their diligence and hard work not only changed the economically backward situation of the host country, but also completely changed the destiny of themselves and their family.

Today, descendants of Chinese descent, who are known for their diligence and intelligence, have also begun to create their own era. The words and deeds of their grandparents have forged their firm will to work hard, and the strong Chinese entrepreneurial genes have helped Chinese startups to expand overseas. Attack step by step, creating scenes that are talked about today.

Southeast Asia has been the most active target market in recent years. A group of Chinese investors and Chinese Internet giants have also been "going to Southeast Asia", which is very lively. Just as a leading VC partner lamented: “The Southeast Asian venture capital market is about to usher in a golden period of development, and everything has just begun.

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