Three categories of post-investment services
As the needs of startup companies become more diversified, the connotation of post-investment services of investment institutions is also expanding, and today can be roughly divided into operation support, There are three major categories: strategic consulting and resource matching.
Operational support is the most basic task of post-investment services, including financial, legal, human, and market levels. Although there have been more and more multi-faceted service companies targeting startups in the market in recent years, and have undertaken the original post-investment service work of many investment institutions, from the perspective of cost, efficiency, and professionalism, many needs of startup companies still need Investment institutions help, such as the legal direction of the VIE structure, equity incentives, financing terms, etc., which also puts forward higher requirements for the professionalism of the investment institutions’ post-investment team.
“The post-investment team like ours is basically a combination close to the early entrepreneurial team, with dedicated product leaders, technical leaders, human resources and market leaders.” Liu Pan, partner of Qingliu Capital Operations, said.
Jingwei Venture Capital divides the service content into legal, financial / data, recruitment, capital, medical, GR / PR and other groups, directly responsible for more than 90 people. Among them, medical treatment is a special service of Jingwei Venture Capital. The institution has a dedicated medical service team to serve entrepreneurs and their families. Relevant data shows that 508 medical needs of invested companies have been resolved in 18 years.
Among the several directions of operational support, Human resources is one of the most frequent post-investment services, including personnel training and executive recruitment, and most investment institutions will organize training activities for executives of the invested projects. , Including study courses, overseas study tours, big coffee lectures, etc. “From the simple recruitment and training in the early days, our post-investment HR service transitioned from the early recruitment and training to the full-module work of human resources. What kind of organizational structure is the most reasonable, how to establish a talent echelon, whether the internal promotion mechanism and the external recruitment mechanism are smooth, etc. “Liu Pan told Catcher.
In the development of many unicorns, many executives were actually recruited by investment institutions, such as MorningsideCapital partner Zhang Fei once told the catcher that he spent more than half a year to help founder Cheng Yixiao find a complementary CEO after investing in quick hands. During this period, he chatted with many people, which prompted Su Hua to join. .
Strategic consulting is generally based on the investor ’s needs in terms of market positioning, business model, financing arrangements, etc., to guide the company to establish more precise and reasonable goals and enhance corporate value.
For Zhong Ding Capital, the most common form of strategy is brainstorming. Regular small-scale seminars on strategic directions are held, which is also regarded as the company ’s leading product.
“We have invested in a forklift parts sales company Francis in 13 years. Although the business model was good at the time, the ceiling was not high enough. After our research, the real industrial commanding point of the forklift market is rental services, and the ceiling is better than The original spare parts business is much higher, and there is also a clear benchmark for joint leasing in the world, so we closed brainstorming and reached consensus with the company management, and finally achieved a successful upgrade in the company ’s business model, which developed into The strongest forklift leasing service provider in the country is also currently preparing for an IPO. “Zhong Ding Capital’s relevant person in charge said to the catcher.
Resource matching is the service with the most obvious growth in the demand of startup companies today, which includes resources from follow-up investment institutions, governments, industries, partners, experts and other aspects. Nowadays, almost all investment institutions will regularly organize resource matching activities, inviting invested companies, LP parties and relevant third parties to participate,
As the mobile Internet development dividend gradually peaks and the industrial Internet is about to come out, it is difficult for startups to over-rely rely on the past flow logic for rapid growth, relying on the deep development of industrial ecological resources with higher potential. These changes also put forward higher requirements for post-investment personnel. It is necessary to keep up with the learning ability and speed of the investment team and deepen the resource acquisition ability and understanding ability of the Industrial Internet.
“ Starting last year, investment institutions have all transferred to the To B track in a large area, trying to connect with people and companies in specific industries, so as to establish a more comprehensive industrial ecology and provide ecology for the invested projects. Service. “Li Na said.
Due to the difference in investment direction and resource accumulation, most investment institutions will also form unique post-investment service advantages. For example, Zhongding Capital has been cultivating in the logistics supply chain for many years, and will regularly hold related theme salons and organize overseas topics for invested companies The inspection helps the invested companies to develop their horizons and connect with industrial resources. For example, Gobi has extensive experience in the fields of enterprise services and overseas, and these resources have obvious positive significance for enterprises in related fields.
The trend corresponding to the increasing importance of industrial resources is that more and more Internet giants or industrial giants have set up strategic investment departments to export their own experience, resources, channels, etc. to invested companies while investing. Large degreeThe above impact on the original investment pattern. Statistics related to the pattern show that war investment cases have accounted for more than 20% of the overall investment cases.
In this regard, Chen Yuetian, a partner of Chenhai Capital, believes that war investment does not necessarily bring effective resource support. “Although the energy of a large company is large, the communication level is very complicated. Each resource is in the hands of a different person in charge. The resource mobilization of different departments is very troublesome. Many of them are air lofts. If a startup company needs to use the money and Resources, it is best to first cooperate with each other to drive the corresponding, talk to the relevant person in charge, and then take the investment. “Chen Yuetian suggested.
At the same time, even if the startup company gets the funds and resources of war investment, it does not mean that its own prospects are stable. For example, Alibaba ’s strategic investment in Yiguo Fresh has obtained the operation right of fresh products in Tmall supermarkets. However, due to its own general performance and adjustment of Alibaba ’s strategy, Alibaba turned to cat super fresh food operation rights at the end of 18 It was handed over to Hema Xiansheng, which caused Yiguo Xiansheng to face extremely embarrassing financial pressure itself, and the listing plan ended at the same time.
This case may be more extreme, but the problem it reflects is that resources are only one of the factors for the survival and development of enterprises. The blessing of giants does not necessarily mean a bright future. This requires enterprises to be sustainable and independent. There are more considerations.
Overall, investment institutions have invested more and more energy in post-investment services, and startups have benefited greatly from it. “In fact, the boundary after investment is getting wider and wider. In the process of raising demand, we are constantly improving our responsibilities and capabilities to meet their more needs.” Liu Pan said.
Three, Service Mode and Collaboration Mechanism
In post-investment services, the service model and communication mechanism between investment institutions and startup companies are also topics that should not be underestimated and ignored. Any post-investment service operates under a specific post-investment service model, and the design of related models will also have a significant impact on service effectiveness.
For investment institutions, their main energy will be concentrated in finding investment targets and investment decisions, and the resources and energy used for post-investment are ultimately limited. In order to maximize the use of post-investment resources and improve post-investment efficiency, many investment institutions try to classify different stages and different types of enterprises and implement differentiated post-investment service strategies to ensure the maximum value and return of investment.
The person in charge of Zhongding Capital introduced to the catcher (ID: ibushouzhi) that Zhongding will divide the invested company into three stages and formulate different post-investment service strategies.The first stage in the middle is the first 100 days. The two parties will carry out high-frequency communication and interaction, clarify the development needs and status of the invested company every month, and help the invested company systematically sort out its organizational and strategic issues.
In the second phase, 100 days later, the communication between the two parties will return to normal. Zhong Ding will regularly introduce expert resources, organize special salons, cross-border communication meetings, study tours and other activities to actively empower and promote investment. Business interaction.
The third stage is a special period for major events of the enterprise, such as the completion of a new round of financing and the upcoming listing. Zhongding Capital will also organize a professional team to “fight side by side” with the invested company, closely interact and introduce resources and help .
As for the organizational structure of the team responsible for the implementation of post-investment services, according to the statistics of Zero2IPO Research, there are generally four modes. The first is the investment manager responsibility system, which does not establish an independent post-investment service department, which is coordinated by the investment group; the second is the post-investment responsibility system, which sets up a professional post-investment department to undertake operational support and even dispatch directors, etc. Most of the post-investment work; the third is the post-investment + pre-investment joint responsibility system, and the distribution is balanced and coordinated; the fourth is the third-party responsibility system, which establishes or incubates third-party service companies to provide post-investment services for invested companies .
Among them, the first model has become less and less, the second and third models are the mainstream allocation of investment institutions today, and the fourth model has only a few investment institutions in practice, among which famous investment institutions As a representative, KKR set up a special subsidiary Capstone to provide services such as operation support and strategic consulting for the invested companies, and also participate in investment adjustments.
Behind the different organizational models, it is related to the benefit allocation mechanism within the investment agency team. The flexibility of the model directly affects the effectiveness of post-investment services. As investment managers and partners of investment institutions often have more resource channels, the investment team has a pivotal position in post-investment services under most organizational models, but because investment returns are not shared among different investors, Investors who are not directly responsible tend to have limited input.
The design of Benchmark Capital, a well-known overseas venture capital firm, is more flexible and innovative in this regard. Six partners choose to split management fees and dividend incentives, which means that the interests of partners are interlinked, no matter which partner is responsible. Investment, as long as the invested company needs, you can find any partner for help.
Equally important is the communication mechanism. “Help not add chaos” is the standard for most investment institutions to pursue post-investment services. However, as an interest community with different positions, investment institutions and startup companies will inevitably have information asymmetry. In addition, disputes and frictions may arise about business problems, and may negatively affect the relationship between the two parties.
“ Investment agencies are accumulated through long-termTrust forms a brand and survives in this industry. Trust is the driving force of this business, and effective communication is the best way to strengthen trust. “Chen Yuetian said,” If you do n’t meet for a long time, even if the online communication is good, the trust will slowly wear out, so we now encourage the investment team to visit the invested company for up to two months. Once, and chat with the CEO for at least an hour. “
“The more contact with the company, the stronger the initiative awareness, and the more problems the company will have to find the investment institution, hoping to help it. At this time, it is necessary to be responsive and consider yourself in the invested company. If you ca n’t do it, you can give the enterprise a statement that it can continue to create value for the invested company and deepen the relationship with the invested company. When exiting, the company will generally consider itself as an investment institution. ”He Jun Capital partner Huang Qiansong talked about it in a share.
In the aforementioned explorations, investment institutions ’understanding of post-investment services has also changed. “In fact, investment institutions are unlikely to fully serve the invested companies, and provide all aspects of services.” Hu Tangjun told the catcher, “We Gobi prefer to understand post-investment services as post-investment empowerment, we will try our best. Support the needs of the invested company and export its own experience and opinions, but it cannot be a complete service organization. “
In the past ten years, domestic post-investment services have completed a transformation from scratch, and formed a diversified service content and model, making considerable contributions to improving the efficiency of social resource utilization and creating social value.
However, post-investment services still have problems that they need to overcome and improve. For example, the effect of post-investment services is difficult to be quantified, and the performance mechanism lacks flexibility. It needs to adapt to the increasingly complex enterprise development situation and generate More positive synergies.
At present, domestic and foreign economies are still facing huge uncertainties, capital market liquidity is scarce, and high-quality projects are also decreasing. Under various factors, domestic investment cases are showing a downward trend. Investment withdrawal has become a more important proposition for most investment institutions. . “ This year’s major environmental requirements post-investment goal is to help invested companies improve the cash flow channel and improve the company’s human-efficiency ratio, to achieve healthier open source and cost-saving.” Li Na said.
In this context, the status of post-investment services in investment institutions is likely to usher in further improvement, and a new and more challenging post-investment service is being launched for ten years.