Is Didi the best choice for Softbank?
Author Yu Jia, his personal account is “Modern” (ID: style-modern)
On March 24, US information media THE INFORMATION broke the news, “SoftBank is about to finalize a $ 300 million investment in Didi Autopilot.”
It seems that capital will never sleep, and one after another has strengthened its autonomous driving layout in China.
Although this matter has not yet been officially announced, it has never been news that SoftBank will invest in Didi’s autonomous driving company.
In January 2015, SoftBank had invested $ 600 million in Kuaidi at that time. One month later, Didi and Kuaidi merged.
In 2017, Didi successively obtained Softbank’s total investment of US $ 8 billion in two separate occasions.
If the rumored $ 300 million investment is finalized, it will be the fourth investment of SoftBank.
For investment institutions such as SoftBank, the liquidity of money is not a problem, and it has always been long-term.
As long as it is determined to invest in autonomous driving in China, Didi is the best target.
In other words, there is nothing better.
For example, Toyota, which has advanced and retreated in the field of self-driving investment with SoftBank, has recently invested in the start-up company Xiaoma Zhixing and Speed.
But SoftBank can’t.
Soft and hard have been re-injecting into Didi, at this time distracting to other startups is not a good choice.
If you sort out the entire autonomous driving landscape in China, it has a large volume and a large imagination space, that is, Didi Chuxing.
In the Chinese market, Didi has a wide range of travel scenarios, and data collection is more convenient. Moreover, these are already accumulated infrastructure, belong to blue blood, and have their own layout rhythm:
In September 2017, Didi established Suzhou Didi Travel Technology Co., Ltd. The legal representative is Zheng Jianqiang. This company is mainly responsible for Didi’s autonomous driving business.
In November 2018, Didi Travel has changed its business scope and added “design, research and development, testing, technical capital, and technical services of smart cars and their on-board equipment and parts”.
In November 2017, Didi established a map company, Diitu Technology. The company’s legal representative is the co-founder and CTO of Didi Taxi, Zhang Bo.
201In August of 1999, Didi officially announced that it will split its autonomous driving department and upgrade it to an independent company, focusing on the development of autonomous driving, product applications and related business development.
In addition, from the perspective of organizational structure, Dibo CTO Zhang Bo is also the CEO of the newly established autonomous driving company, and Yuan Shun is the COO of Meng Xing, the executive director of the fund. Wei Junqing, the former vice president of Anbofu, became the CTO of Didi Autonomous Driving Company and reported to Zhang Bo. Jia Zhaoyin, the head of the US team and Zheng Jianqiang, the head of the Chinese team, reported to Wei Junqing.
From the perspective of SoftBank, because of Sun Zhengyi ’s star halo and his relationship with a series of important Chinese companies (for example, he has been helping the growth of Ali when he became acquainted with Ma Yun). Become the focus of industry attention.
On the other hand, because Didi has the most complete travel data resources in China, it is also an innovative company that has turned to mobile travel and is most likely to “subvert” traditional car companies’ business models for more than a century.
For more traditional car manufacturers and emerging car manufacturers, investing in mass production and sales of L2 autonomous vehicles is currently the most prudent commercialization strategy.
Being secure means limited imagination.
But SoftBank is uncertain.
Unmanned ride-hailing and shared mobility services will become the biggest nightmare for strategically overpowering traditional car companies.
In the past two years, autonomous driving seems to be in a trough, with various information on bankruptcy and financing difficulties. In this extremely burning industry, there is less and less financing information, but some good news has recently come, but the valuation has dropped significantly.
As for the financing amount and valuation, I personally think that I don’t need to pay too much attention to the book numbers.
The amount of investment and the valuation itself depends on the relative value, and the other is the market conjecture. It is meaningless to just isolate the numbers.
In addition, the valuation is too high, which is not a good thing for start-ups. This is also a lesson for artificial intelligence companies in recent years.
The valuation is very high. It’s really good-looking, but the plate becomes larger, and it is not so easy for new capital to come in.
Back to the beginning of the article, is Didi the best choice for Softbank?
Yes, and this is the only option.
About the Author:
Yu Jia, former Chief Marketing Officer of artificial intelligence startup Yushi Technology, former researcher at Mercedes-Benz China Research and Development Center, and media ambassador for China and Germany. Her self-media “Modern” focuses on consumer trends and lifestyles.