PE Background Blessing: How Does Hony Express The Perfect Diary Of "Venture Capital"?

Special writer Haoran reports from Beijing

Another old brand PE entered the early investment market.

On November 1, 2020, Hony venture capital announced the completion of the first phase of US dollar fund raising, with a fund scale of US $130 million. The 21st century economic report reporter learned that the fund started financing in July 2020, and under the background of the continuous cold in the overall fund-raising market, it took only four months to complete the excess fund-raising. It is reported that the investors are many well-known international institutional investors.

As a business focused on early and medium-term venture capital, Hony venture capital mainly focuses on digital consumption. At the same time, Hony venture capital is also exploring the investment in tob science and technology field with the main line of industrial digitization. So far, the fund has completed the investment in many star projects, such as perfect diary, dingdong shopping, ximuyuan, art treasure, etc.

Similar to the institutions at home and abroad that have built a comprehensive investment management platform, Hony investment, which is the first to be good at M & A investment, has continuously tried to cross-border and expand frequency in different business categories during its 17 years of establishment. Up to now, it has gained great achievements and brand reputation in the fields of real estate and secondary market.

Since 2017, Hony has begun to focus on early investment and takes "digital economy" as an important investment direction. At that time, Hony investment allocated part of the PE master fund to the direction of digital economy. At that time, it invested in famous projects such as ofo and byte jump, which were in the ascendant. Up to now, the success and failure of these projects have shown each other, fully explaining the danger and charm of early investment.

In fact, in addition to Hony, VC / PE early venture capital is not rare in recent years. At the beginning of the year, Hillhouse capital launched a 10 billion scale Hillhead venture capital; in 2018, Sequoia China single seed fund In addition, a number of head PE Institutions, including cornerstone capital and Huagai capital, are deployed in the early investment field.

"Therefore, we hope to seize the opportunity of new economic development." Wang Tianshi, managing partner of Hony venture capital, told the 21st century economic report that the merger and acquisition investment experience accumulated by Hony PE investment for many years, as well as the industrial resources of the portfolio, will be the incomparable advantages of Hony venture capital.

Two investment tracks

It is understood that Hony venture capital's first US dollar fund has a completely independent decision-making mechanism from Hony investment master fund, and its investment is mainly round a and round B.

In terms of track, Hony now focuses on digital consumption, focusing on two major investment themes: Digital driven consumer brand and new retail and digital content driven vertical platform. And this will continue to improve and adjust over time.

According to Wang Tianshi, at present, China has the largest consumer market in the world and the largest supply chain system in the world, which is linked by the world's leading digital infrastructure. Based on the three advantages of market, supply chain and digital infrastructure, China's digital consumption ushers in unprecedented opportunities.

He said: the two main types of core consumption in the z-era population and new middle-class families will drive the emergence of new structural demand. At the same time, the shift from traditional centralized media to decentralized, personalized and lean mobile social media provides a faster and more accurate channel for users to reach. China will have the opportunity to create a new generation of consumer brands and retail channels.

At the same time, Hony venture capital will explore excellent teams with keen insight into user needs and differentiated product positioning, sensitive response and learning ability to innovative digital marketing, and organizational structure and strategic ability to achieve long-term brand building.

In the field of beauty and e-commerce, in 2017, Hony venture capital led the investment in round a with perfect diary; in 2020, Hony venture capital led the investment in round a to lead investment in ximuyuan, a medium and high-end skin care brand with natural active ingredients. In the field of online education, Hony has invested in art treasure; in the field of short video, Hony has bet on animation IP short video content production and virtual KOL operation company gravity painting.

In the future, Hony venture capital will also invest in tob science and technology based on industrial digitization, focusing on the underlying computing and connectivity capabilities, intelligent terminals, and data-driven industrial applications. It is understood that Hony venture capital has also invited professional partners in this field.

Wang Tianshi said, "in addition to capital assistance, Hony's deep industrial resources will also bring rich customer resources and industry awareness to technology entrepreneurs."

Differentiation behind PE

From PE to early investment, in addition to abandoning "suits", Wang Tianshi's most intuitive feeling is "more tired".

Wang Tianshi said, "when I do PE, I pay more attention to profound projects. Now I have to watch hundreds of projects a year, which consumes not only brain power, but also physical strength. The intensity must be greater. But because I love it, I'll enjoy it. "

And the intensity of early investment competition also opened his eyes. "From morning till night." Wang Tianshi said, "on the one hand, you need to understand what you want to do; on the other hand, you should see all the items you should see. Why are you allowed to vote for some star projects that you may have seen? "

Since this is the case, why are so many top PE Institutions "desperate" to go one after another in recent years? Wang Tianshi believes that everything is very reasonable. "The world is changing, and the great era of innovation is accelerating. Leading institutions also hope to have earlier insight into new trends, so as to seize good investment opportunities. " He said.

In the outside world, PE business has a natural expectation of supporting venture capital portfolio (in fact, Hony PE also annotated the perfect diary in the subsequent rounds). But in Wang Tianshi's view, compared with other investment institutions, Hony venture capital has the advantage of differentiation.

First, Hony investment has rich experience in M & A and integration needed by enterprise development, which can help enterprises. "We all know that big companies in the beauty industry, such as L'Oreal, are getting bigger and bigger through M & A. In the future development process of perfect diary, we can provide domestic and international M & a related help, so that enterprises can grow rapidly. " Wang Tianshi said.

Second, Hony's existing business layout and industrial resources are a long board that early institutions did not have. "For example, Hony investment has a deep understanding of the consumer industry in addition to the PE business, the real estate investment business can also provide collaborative resources, which can help the invested companies." According to the reporter's understanding, the location of the first new offline retail store of perfect diary was supported by Hony real estate team.

He believes that "to do early investment or to return to the essence, the key for early investors to do well is still to understand the entrepreneurs, choose the right people, and accompany them to go on. Of course, the most important thing is what you can see when others are hesitant." "Grasping the key variables of the industry and partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs, we have had successful practices and hope to do better in the future," Wang said

?