After the 85th, boys created Mihayou 100 billion valuations, VC collectively missed

"Since the career, my biggest regret has missed Mihayou."

Recently, a VC friend in Beijing resumed and recalled this past. Around 2013, he met Miha's startup team. At that time, the company was looking for financing, but the mainstream VC circle was not able to look at it. Due to the hesitation of the track and various reasons, friends and the organization finally gave up the project.

Established in 2011, Mihayou was founded by 3 alumni of Shanghai Jiaotong University -Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei, and Luo Yuhao, who are also enthusiasts of ACG culture. The three of them established Mihayou Technology in a small dormitory. , Specializing in two -dimensional games, the game "Original God", which is popular in the future. From the initial funds of only 100,000 yuan, to now, Mihayou's latest valuation rumors have reached 200 billion yuan.

In the early years, Cai Haoyu raised financing everywhere. In the end, Mihayou had only the only round of financing -angel investor Song Tao, and there was no VC/PE machine mechanism behind him. After starting to make money, whether it is VC/PE, Tencent, byte beating, etc., they have taken the initiative to come to the door, but at that time Mihayou no longer needed. "This should be a phenomenal company that is dropped by the VC circle collective MISS."

After 85, Shanghai Jiaotong University made a game money printing machine

I used to finance and no one asked

Behind Mihayou is three alumni from Shanghai Jiaotong University.

In 1988, Cai Haoyu was born in Jinan, Shandong. Parents are teachers who have taught computer -related subjects. This has enabled Cai Haoyu to play simple computer games from a young age. Parents are also familiar with the importance of computers in the future, so they have never banned more. They found that Cai Haoyu did have talent in computer operations.

In 1996, when Cai Haoyu was 8 years old, he won the second prize of the National Computer Competition Animation Group with the "Alien Messenger" he made alone. Two years later, Cai Haoyu was elected as the only academician in the computer field at that time with his professional knowledge in the computer field.

(The picture shows Cai Haoyu, derived from the video screenshot)

In 2005, Cai Haoyu was admitted to Shanghai Jiaotong University as expected as a computer. During college, he came into contact with ACG culture (referring to the second dimension, animation, comics, games), and set up a "technical house" with peace of mind. It was also during the day of Shanghai Jiaotong University. , Luo Yuhao, the three were roommates.

At the beginning of 2011, Cai Haoyu, who was about to graduate from graduate students, pulled Liu Wei and Luo Yuhao who also liked ACG. The Mihayou Studio was officially established in the D32 dormitory of the Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiaotong University. The interest -free loan of 10,000 yuan, the direction of entrepreneurship is a two -dimensional game, and also shouted a slogan: the technical house changes the world.

In September of the same year, Mihayou's first independent Mengmei girl mini game "Fly ME 2 the Moon" was launched. The download of this game in one month has reached 3,000 times.

However, the start -up funds of 100,000 yuan were used up quickly, and Cai Haoyu and others began to seek financing. In the barbaric age of that game, plagiarism seemed to be a mainstream. The original two -dimensional game seemed to have no future. Some investors had let go. Qian's Three Kingdoms and martial arts games, I immediately played money. "But Cai Haoyu refused.

Finally, after many twists and turns, Mihayou received 1 million yuan in angel round investment in 2012. Song Tao from CEO from Sikai Network, this 1 million, allowed Song Tao to get 15%of the equity -this is also Miha Tour the only financing to the present.

After getting the money, Mihayou launched "Collapse Academy" in 2013, but the response of this stand -alone game was not enthusiastic. The three of them were confused, holding a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan, and felt that they could not retreat.

The financing is still no one, but I still have to grit my teeth. They began to contact players at close range, understand the needs, and continuously improved, the data of "Collapse Academy" began to warm up. In 2014, Mihayou launched "Collapse Academy 2" while it was hot. After one month of launch, the flowing water exceeded 10 million, and the revenue of 95 million yuan in that year was 95 million yuan.

The turning point is that from 2015, domestic animation has ushered in an outbreak. Mihayou introduced the B station agent "Broken Academy 2". It can be said that it is the success of "Breaking Academy 2" that the domestic VCs began to realize the strong gold absorption of the two -dimensional game.

Since then, the collapse 3 has successfully broken the circle and began to go to sea. The public beta was 9 months, and the cumulative flow of water exceeded 1.1 billion yuan.

In 2017, Mihayou submitted an IPO application for the first time, trying to list on A shares, but it has not been lined up for 3 years.

Later, Mihayou, who had sufficient cash flow, no longer took the listing and took the initiative to withdraw the IPO application. Of course, the more important reason is that they have a game that is popular at home and abroad, making money to numb -September 28, 2020, 2020 On the day, "Original God" was born. Everyone knows the later stories, and "The original God" has become a well -known "money printing machine".

In 2022, China's "New Fortune 500 Rich List" was released, and the three founders of Mihayou were on the list: Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei and Luo Yuhao for 55.35 billion yuan, 30.51 billion yuan, and 28.89 billion yuan, ranking 73, 145, 145, 145 Position, 157 bits. In addition, Cai Haoyu also became the new richest man in Jinan, Shandong with Mihayou. This phenomenon -level company does not make a rich VC circle. Instead, Song Tao, an angel investor in Mihayou, made a lot of money because he invested in Mihayou in his early years, ranking 231 yuan for 20.2 billion yuan.

It ’s popular all over the world. A game earns 10 billion yuan

Rumors of valuations reached 200 billion

Why is Mihayou?

We still have to start with "The original God". This is a project that takes 3 years from the project to the online, and the manpower is full and the manpower is full. Mihayou has high hopes for this. Some media reports say that the development amount is US $ 100 million. Philippines.

It is not upset that the first month of the official launch, "Yuan Shen" reached a single month of 1.6 billion revenue, ranking first in mobile game revenue. "Original God" began to explode inside and outside the game circle, and even some people even commented, "The original two -dimensional game market is a five -dollar plate. Mihayou has made it bigger to ten dollars. ","

Because of the "Original God", Mihayou's ranking among domestic mobile game manufacturers has soared significantly. Just one month after the release of the original God, in the TOP30 list of mobile game manufacturers released by Sensor Tower data, Mihayou rose directly from 26 to the second place.

At the same time, Mihayou began to start in the world's fame. Except for the Chinese market, "The original God" has revenue in the United States and Japan -in March 2021, "The original God" has become the most profitable game overseas with a monthly income of $ 100 million. Mihayou has also become the highest -income game company in the world (except for the Chinese market), and Tencent and NetEase are thrown behind.

It is reported that a single "Original God" contributed more than 15 billion flow to Mihayou in 2021. Although the reputation of the original God in China is not high, in January this year, "The original God" reached TOP1 of Chinese mobile games overseas, even Cai Haoyu himself said, "Overseas market performance exceeds company expectations."

In July 2021, the Ministry of Commerce's Service and Trade Department announced "2021-2022 national cultural export key enterprises and key project lists", Mihayou and Yuan Shen both were selected.

The great success of Mihayou and "Yuanshen" made the game giant Tencent sound the alarm -know, the mobile income exceeded the $ 1 billion mark, Tencent's cash king "Glory of the King" used August, and " The original God "only used for half a year, which can be described as rival.

It has been circulated in the circle so far: After the "original God" was launched, Tencent had a very generous condition in order to enter the Mihajun, but for a company with a profit of tens of billions of dollars, the high price seemed to be useless.

A person familiar with the matter revealed that in 2020, the byte beating also filed an invitation invitation to Mihayou. The amount was a quarter of the byte beating valuation (at that time). Mihayou's valuation in the circle may have reached $ 25 billion.

But these were rejected by Cai Haoyu. Tencent had to turn around 1.3 billion to Tianmei Studio, and developed "Glory of the King" and the IP open game "Glory World"; another game giant Netease invested 640 million to open the world mobile game.

Byte beating has also launched an attack on Tencent and NetEase on the game sector, but I did not expect that the real challenger was Mihayou. With explosive games, Mihawanda spent 10 years to achieve net profit second only to Tencent and NetEase (it is reported that it was 5.7 billion in 2020), and the valuation towards 200 billion -and when the company seemed to be listed in 2017, the company was looking for it. The valuation is only 3.6 billion.

Investment landscape of a technical house:

Aerospace rocket, brain interface, artificial sun

In the past two years, the VC circle has often discussed Mihayou privately because the company began to start VC.

On May 20, a private rocket technology company, Oriental Space (Shandong) Technology Co., Ltd. completed a round A financing of 400 million yuan, and the investor list appeared in Miha. Not only that, Mihayou also led the energy of energy with Weilai Capital in February this year -a company dedicated to exploring commercial fusion energy technology.

Two strange shots are not in the old line of the game of Mihayou. However, these two invested companies have similarities: the founder of the Eastern Space is a Tsinghua Student Yao Song born in 1992. The energy is strange. The founder and CEO of the Peking University in 2009, Yang Zhao, who graduated from the Department of Physics of Peking University in 2009. The two young school fighters are the founders of cutting -edge technology companies. In terms of VC circle, such young people can play with Cai Haoyu.

To this day, Mihayou has already made public investment companies with nearly 20 companies, as well as companies related to the main business of the game, such as Magic Sword Network, Lingmeng Technology, Mi Painter, etc., and also have the above -mentioned type of cross -border cutting -edge technology investment. Essence

In 2021, Mihayou had made 5 shots, including the Yuan universe social platform Soul. In addition, Mihayou also invested in the Ruijin Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University in March last year. The main content of the cooperation is the development and clinical application of brain interface technology. Mihayou provided special funds. The two sides jointly established the "Ruijin Brain Center Mihayou Joint Laboratory".

In fact, Mihayou also started LP and invested VC funds many times. At the end of 2021, Nanjing Wuyuefeng Huixin Entrepreneurship Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) was established. Mihayou was one of the shareholders. Big shareholders. Earlier, Mihayou also invested in the first phase of all things (Xiamen) Entrepreneurship Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Boyu Anhua (Xiamen) Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership). When the funds were required in the early days of entrepreneurship, Mihayou had been rejected many times, but later he became a solid dark horse, so that many VC/PEs, even Tencent and bytes wandered in front of the door in front of the door. But I can't go in -because the company's cash flow is "too strong".

"Have you heard of it? A game company in Shanghai holds 5 billion cash and find financial management in the world. Games such as" Yuanshen ", just like the glory of the king and peace elite, will continue to snowball." At the beginning of this year Friends who were responsible for fundraising at the VC Fund lamented.

More investors sigh, "Missing is to miss it. If you want to invest in Miha, you have to recognize this team in 2012 and 2013."

Today, Mihayou is no longer in a hurry to the IPO. Recently, the VC circle frequently tied Miha and DJI. They have some significant commonality behind them -earning foreign exchange, making big money, and not listing.

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