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Text / Wu Xianzhi
Source/Photon Planet (ID: TMTweb)
The “new force” of offline chain stores is hurrying to IPO. Earlier, Bianlifeng announced that it is planning to go to the United States for an IPO within the year, and the technology service providers behind it seem to be unable to hold back.
Recently, Photon Planet exclusively learned from a number of people familiar with the matter that Dmall, a digital retail solution provider, is preparing to list in Hong Kong and is expected to submit an application to the exchange this quarter.
Last year, Dingdong grocery shopping and Daily Youxian were listed one after another. Internet grocery shopping and community group buying were once in the air.
An investment banker said that Duodian was preparing to go public in the United States as early as the end of 2020. At that time, in addition to hiring a number of foreign banks, Chinese banks and Huaxing Capital were also listed, but by the summer of 2021, the entire Chinese concept stocks continued to decline. , the market value of Dingdong Maicai and Daily Youxian has shrunk significantly. In addition to stricter supervision, it is not easy to obtain a high valuation for listing. Under multiple unfavorable factors, the application has to be abandoned.
At the same time, Photon Planet confirmed the above statement from a multi-point Dmall investor, who said that the company is indeed preparing for an IPO, but the current environment is not good, and it is difficult to say how it will progress in the end.
According to our exclusive information, Duodian is not yet profitable and is still in the red.
Management team “beautiful”
Duodian was born with a “golden spoon”.
In 2015, Liu Jiangfeng, the former head of Huawei Glory, started a fresh food e-commerce company Dmall. Without BP and LOGO, he won a $100 million angel round of financing from IDG and other institutions. A strategic partnership involving capital and business has been established.
Early investment looked at the team. At that time, the founding lineup of Duodian was quite luxurious, bringing together several executives from technology and e-commerce giants. CEO Liu Jiangfeng and partner Li Wenzhi are former Huawei executives, COO Lin Jie is a former JD.com executive, CTO Han Xin is a former Vipshop executive, and partner Zhang Feng is the core figure of Wumart’s e-commerce business unit.
However, in a few years, almost all the executives of the original founding team have left.
In March 2016, after one year of establishment, Liu Jiangfeng faded out of the team management, basically did not participate in the operation, and then officially resigned.
Liu Jiangfeng’s successor is COO Lin Jie. After he took office, he adjusted his business model to “run errands”, turned to category management, and focused his funds on the logistics and distribution field. In addition, when Lin Jie was appointed, Duodian began to fully integrate with Wumart.
Regrettably, Lin Jie also left after only one year to start his own business. In the second half of 2017, Zhang Feng, the president of the company, acted as CEO. Liu Guihai, the partner of “Backup”, is from Wumart, and so far the multipoints have been completely “beautified” from the inside to the outside. According to a person familiar with the matter, Wumart has a financing relationship with Duodian, but we did not find this situation when we checked the company’s data.
According to the information obtained by Photon Planet, Zhang Feng, the president of Multipoint Dmall, is the nephew of Zhang Wenzhong, chairman of Wumart, and after the latter has cleared his grievances in 2018, he is gradually moving to the front of the stage.
On February 17 this year, Zhang Wenzhong used the title of “Chairman of Dmall” in the “4th CGF Consumer Goods Forum China Day” event. Gradually transition to the Zhang family business.
In terms of business development, Wumart has helped many points to complete the breakthrough from 0 to 1, and it has been Wumart’s only customer for a long time. The first customer of Dmall OS, a retail SaaS solution in 2016, was Wumart. Three years later, the overall switch of Dmall OS is also completed in Wumart. Obviously, since its establishment seven years ago, Wumart has provided Duodian with almost all application scenarios of new technologies.
With the business at a loss and nearly two years after the last funding round, the IPO is expected to ease cash flow pressures.
need to rely on financing blood transfusion
As a digital retail solution provider, the fate of Multipoint is not in its own hands, but in the hands of its customers.
Rent, employees and inventory make chain convenience stores have high cash flow requirements, and they are slow to make profits, difficult to turn around, and low profits. In recent years, with the acceleration of online and offline integration, it once appeared a small spring. Until the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, and the winter came in an instant, many offline chain stores had a very difficult time. For example, this year, convenience bee began a large-scale wave of store closures and layoffs.
Even if there is a Wumart platform behind the multipoint, it still has to rely on financing to supplement the funds – this is what Zhang Wenzhong learned from reading books in prison.
There are mainly two types of multi-point business models. One is the retail joint cloud for retailers, which helps retailers and brands achieve digital transformation. The other is to provide value-added services for channels through multiple apps and small programs, such as helping chain stores to attract new members and maintain membership stickiness.
Official news shows that as of June last year, Duodian has reached cooperation with more than 120 chain stores and convenience stores, covering 15,000 stores in four countries and regions. In addition, there are more than 2,300 employees, including more than 1,300 technical developers.
From new retail to community group buying and Internet grocery shopping, Duodian has always been one of the beneficiaries of past retail outlets. The current epidemic has put the economy in a certain predicament, and the future is full of uncertainties. International investors will also become very cautious in making moves. Various factors may affect the valuation of multi-point IPOs.
It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned investors also told Photon Planet that Liu Jiangfeng, the founder of Multipoint, who has long since faded out of the company’s management, still holds Multipoint equity. If the listing goes smoothly, it will be possible to cash out.
This article is reproduced from: http://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/csj/2022-04-19/doc-imcwipii5263688.shtml
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