With the resignation of Huang Zheng, Pinduoduo, the mysterious angel investor, began to surface.

Last week, when the 40-year-old Huang Zheng announced that he would step down as CEO when Pinduoduo was surging forward, there was an uproar. At the same time, his stake fell to 29.4 per cent from 43.3 per cent in April 2020. In less than three months, the proportion of Pinduoduo shares controlled by Huang Zheng fell by 13.9%.His wealth has shrunk by hundreds of billions of yuan.

The investment community learned that one of the reasons for the decline in Huang Zheng's shareholding is that Pure Treasure Limited, which is jointly owned by Huang Zheng and angel investors, holds 551154700 common shares of Pinduoduo.Among them, 180382480 shares (3.77% of the company's total shares) belong to the angel investor.This time, it is all transferred to the angel investor and is no longer controlled by Huang Zheng.

According to Pinduoduo's latest market capitalization of 108.984 billion US dollars, it belongs to this angel investor.The return is 4.1 billion US dollars (more than 28 billion yuan).

World War I earned at least 28.7 billion yuan. Who is this mysterious angel investor? This is one of the most concerned unsolved mysteries in China's venture capital circle.

The most mysterious angel investor:Hiding behind Huang Zheng, he earned more than 28 billion in the first World War.

If Huang Zheng is the most mysterious CEO in China, the angel investor behind him is even more so.

As soon as he became the second richest man in China, he suddenly stepped down. Huang Zheng's move is intriguing. What is unknown is that behind Huang Zheng's departure, the angel investor Puduo has quietly collected tens of billions of dollars into the bag.

Specifically, Pure Treasure Limited, co-owned by Huang Zheng and angel investors, holds 551154700 common shares of Pinduoduo. Among them180382480 shares (3.77% of the total shares of the company) belong to the angel investor.

However, in the Puduo prospectus and the latest equity map, in addition to Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Banyan Capital and so on, did not see any individual angel investors.

Who is this mysterious angel investor? There are different opinions in the domestic VC/PE circle.

As we all know, in the growing history of Pinduoduo, there are four crucial angel investors. In August 2015, the newly founded Pinduoduo completed the first round of multimillion-dollar financing.Led by Sun Tongyu, Duan Yongping, Ding Lei and Wang WeiThe four men are defined by the outside world as Huang Zheng's mysterious advisors, life mentors, guides and business partners.

When Pinduoduo was founded, Ding Lei was one of the important investors. If it hadn't been for Ding Lei 19 years ago, today's Huang Zheng might have been a different story. In 2001, when NetEase, Inc was facing a life-and-death crisis, Ding Lei, who was at a low ebb, added Huang Zheng's MSN to try to ask relevant technical questions. At that time, Huang Zheng was just an ordinary college student, while Ding Lei was already a well-known Internet mogul. The emergence of Ding Lei became an excellent window for Huang Zheng to open the Internet world, and also planted the seeds for later getting to know Duan Yongping.

It is not difficult to understand how much Wang Wei invests. Founded more than 20 years ago, Shunfeng has been a giant in China's express delivery industry, but Wang Wei does not just want to do "express delivery", e-commerce is the plate that he has always wanted to win. However, after the first conversation, Huang Zheng directly poured cold water on Wang Wei: "you can't do it as an e-commerce business. Which express company have you ever seen do it?" in spite of this, Wang Wei was still obsessed with e-commerce and later became an angel investor.

Compared with the first three investors, the appearance of Sun Tongyu came as a surprise. Sun Tongyu, one of the founders of BABA and one of the founders of Taobao, abruptly resigned as CEO of Taobao in 2008, leaving Jack Ma and BABA. In this regard, Sun Tongyu has responded that leaving Taobao is not to be abandoned martial arts, but martial arts is out of date.

After leaving Taobao, Sun Tongyu's business was not successful and was almost in a state of retirement. Little was known about his dynamics, until he invested in Pinduoduo as an angel investor. In the eyes of the outside world, the relationship between Sun Tongyu and Huang Zheng is full of imagination in the competition between Taobao and Puduo e-commerce.

When talking about Sun Tongyu's influence on Pinduoduo, Huang Zheng praised him, saying, "his understanding of the platform is really different. Only a few people in China have used the platform, which is helpful." For example, he believes that the platform should consider different stages of ecological evolution, while the brand is more of a unique value proposition for a single segment of the population. "

There is no doubt that Pinduoduo can not grow into today's behemoth without the guidance and guidance of these four angel investors, which has become a legend in the history of Chinese venture capital.

Who is the angel investor?

So who is the angel investor who co-owns Pure Treasure Limited with Huang Zheng and holds the relevant shares?

At present, the outside world is more directed towardsHuang Zheng's life mentor-Duan Yongping。

The legend who once created "Little Overlord" and "step by step", and then hatched "OPPO" and "VIVO"It is considered to be the biggest capital on Huang Zheng's way to start a business.Huang Zheng also inadvertently mentioned in a previous interview, "among my angel investors, the one who has the greatest influence on me is Duan Yongping, who is constantly teaching me to do the right thing first, and then do the right thing." "

Reviewing the way Huang Zheng grew up, Duan Yongping gave a lot of guidance and help, whether he entered Google after graduation in 2004, or started a business through Ouku in 2007, as well as subsequent games and e-commerce businesses. Among them, the most talked about is that Duan Yongping spent a lot of money to have dinner with Buffett and brought Huang Zheng.

In 2006, Duan Yongping bought the chance to have dinner with Warren Buffett for $620000. This dinner, Duan Yongping can only take one person, he chose Huang Zheng. Huang Zheng at that time was only a small employee who worked in Alphabet Inc-CL C after graduating with a master's degree, which shows that he attached great importance to Huang Zheng.When Pinduoduo was founded in 2015, Duan Yongping not only gave advice, but even contributed money directly.

Later, when Huang Zheng fell into the whirlpool of public opinion along with Pinduoduo, Duan Yongping did not hesitate to support him: "I voted for Huang Zheng for personal reasons. He is my friend. I know him and trust him." Huang Zheng is a rare and savvy person I know. He pays attention to the nature of things. "

Nowadays, Duan Yongping seldom shows his face, but the legend about him has been circulating in the rivers and lakes. He founded Xiao Bawang at the age of 30 and achieved an annual output value of 1 billion from a small factory with an annual loss of 2 million. At the age of 34, he once won the five-second broadcast time of the news broadcast at the price of 80 million, and became the "standard king" in front of CCTV's "weather forecast" for two years in a row. firmly seated at the top of the market. In 2001, Duan Yongping retreated behind the scenes and split step by step into three, each with a 10 per cent stake, which led to the later OPPO and VIVO.

After going into seclusion, Duan Yongping gradually disappeared from the public view and began to invest silently. AndThe first shovel of gold in his investment career came from NetEase, Inc.In April 2002, Duan Yongping and his wife bought 1.52 million shares of NetEase, Inc on the open market for US $2 million, accounting for 5.05 per cent of NetEase, Inc's total share capital. For NetEase, Inc, who was hovering on the line of life and death at that time, it was undoubtedly timely help.

With the substantial growth of wireless performance, NetEase, Inc's profits soared rapidly, and the stock price also launched the first round of upward offensive, rising all the way from about $1 to more than $15. A year later, Ding Lei became the richest man in China.It brought a huge profit of 100 million US dollars for Duan Yongping.

Victory in the first battle, Duan Yongping believes that the success of investment lies in the understanding of Buffett, but also in adhering to the implementation of Buffett's philosophy. "I'm not the only one who bought NetEase, Inc's stock for $0.80, but not many of them held it up to $100, so finding value sometimes depends on luck. "he particularly reminded meInvestment does not care about missing an opportunity, but never seize the wrong opportunity.

In recent years, Duan Yongping bought Apple Inc, Maotai and other stocks have made great gains, creating a lot of wealth myths, and even known as China's "Duan Fett." Even so, there is still no sign of Duan Yongping on the major wealth lists, and no one knows how much money he has.

But it is widely believed that Duan Yongping is the real invisible richest man in China.

Retiring at the age of 40, Huang Zheng copied Duan Yongping

Now 40-year-old Huang Zheng is very much like Duan Yongping at that time.

From the first day of starting a business, every founder fantasized about the highlight moment of ringing the bell on the stage, but Huang Zheng did something different. On the day of Pinduoduo's listing, Huang Zheng did not show up to ring the bell and hardly appeared in public after the listing. In a handful of media interviews, he even said bluntly that he would not be willing to be interviewed by the media if it were not for the CEO. This makes Huang Zheng one of the most mysterious founders of well-known Internet companies in China.

After five years of running, he just overtook Jack Ma to become the second richest man in China, and then stepped down as CEO. Huang Zheng even did not hesitate to devote 10.11% of his shares to charities and partnership programs to quickly shrink his wealth. Obviously, Huang Zheng does not want to be paid too much attention to by the outside world.

This style is similar to that of Duan Yongping in the past.In 2001, at the height of his career, Duan Yongping suddenly announced his retirement and lived in seclusion in the United States. That year, Duan Yongping was just 40 years old. Later, to bring NetEase, Inc back to life, Duan Yongping was once named the god of the stock, but he personally kept a low profile and rarely talked about it.

Here is an episode: in 2003, as Duan Yongping held more than 5% of NetEase, Inc shares, it must be reported according to the requirements of the US Securities Regulatory Commission, and will be published on the CSRC website. As a result, the value of Duan Yongping's personal wealth was estimated by Hurun according to his NetEase, Inc shares, ranking him 83rd with a fortune of 1 billion yuan.

But this is extremely painful for Duan Yongping, being included in the rich list has become a burden on him, so that he can no longer keep a low profile. So from then on, he tried to buy no more than 5% of the stock, deliberately avoiding public reporting.

Behind the almost similar rhythm of life is Duan Yongping's profound influence on Huang Zheng. Duan Yongping is rarely interviewed by the media, on rare public occasions.What he talks about most is "duty" and "ordinary mind".. On Duan Yongping's NetEase, Inc blog, there are two sentences in an article entitled "our Secrets": "what people often say: advertising, employee share sharing, dealer shareholding, dense outlets, offline channels, and so on." it's all wrong! Our secret is: duty + normal mind. "

而Huang Zheng has expressed to the outside world more than once that Pinduoduo's value core is "duty".. In a letter to shareholders before the listing on June 30, 2018, Huang Zheng pointed out for the first time that Pinduoduo's core values are his duty. His explanation of this "duty" is to focus on creating value for consumers. "We may not be understood, but we always do it out of goodwill and not evil."

Interestingly, in the open letter in which he stepped down as CEO a few days ago, Huang Zheng once again mentioned "duty": Pinduoduo carries unique social values, is a public institution, is not a tool to demonstrate personal ability, and should not be too personal. We will keep our promise and strive to improve its organizational structure and "duty" culture, so that Pinduoduo will continue to evolve according to its own unique destiny.

At the critical moment when Pinduoduo galloped at full speed, Huang Zheng, who was in the prime of life, left a series of question marks to the outside world when he stepped down as CEO. But combined with Duan Yongping's experience, Huang Zheng seems to be able to explain.

In retrospect, who is the angel investor who does not want to be named in Pinduoduo's equity map? Maybe you already have a preliminary answer.