Since its listing was terminated last year, the Unicorn Ruoyu technology, once valued at $6 billion (about 38.1 billion yuan), has repeatedly fallen into difficulties such as lack of money and layoffs.
Recently, many employees of Shenzhen Ruoyu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Ruoyu Technology) told the reporter of the daily economic news that the company announced that employees will continue to have a holiday after the Tomb Sweeping Day for three months, and will be paid according to the Shenzhen minimum wage standard
Before February 2021, the “halo” of Rouyu technology was highly sought after by capital, including many well-known investment institutions such as CITIC Capital, Shenzhen Venture Capital, Hangzhou cornerstone, poly (Hengqin) capital and so on. But now, Ruoyu technology is deeply in the vortex of “salary arrears” and has been seeking financing help. Xiaobian notes that since the withdrawal of listing application, Ruoyu has no new investment.
all employees have a 3-month holiday? Company response
previously, it was revealed that the salary was not paid for 6 months
“In the afternoon of March 31, all departments of the company successively notified that the holiday will begin after the Tomb Sweeping Day, which will last for three months. Among them, the salary will be calculated according to the full salary in April and the minimum wage standard in Shenzhen in May and June. The social security of these two months will also be adjusted according to the minimum base.” Li Yanhong (a pseudonym), an old employee still working in Rouyu technology, told the reporter of daily economic news.
In addition, according to the securities times, the reporter learned from Ruoyu technology employees that the company has not paid wages for several months. Each department orally conveyed that “from April all employees have a three-month holiday , the wages in April will be paid in full, and the minimum wage will be settled in May and June”.
However, the company has another statement. According to interface news, in response to the three-month holiday for all employees, Rouyu technology told reporters that company does not have a full holiday, and many employees are still at work. It is rumored on the Internet that all employees have a three-month holiday
For the holiday, most employees, including Li Yanhong, are even more angry that Ruoyu technology has never issued a formal notice about the three-month holiday. “The company is worried about the negative impact of this news being released by employees, but employees are worried that if the company does not issue a formal notice in the official name, will the company interpret three months as employee absenteeism in the follow-up?”
Li Yanhong added to reporters that paying wages according to the minimum wage standard in Shenzhen is not the first time that Ruoyu technology has implemented it. “Before the Spring Festival this year, i.e. (about) from January 17 to February 16, I will resume work. The month of holiday is also calculated according to the minimum wage standard in Shenzhen.” Another Rouyu technology employee said that “even the minimum standard has not been issued”.
Recalling the process of salary arrears in the past few months, Li Yanhong believes that November 30, 2021 is an important node. The failure to fulfill the promise of supplementary pay made everyone realize that there was little hope. At that time, the internal speech of Liu Zihong (the founder of the company) also made the employees lose hope.
“Like facing investors, he always said that the future of the mobile phone market must be very good, but he didn’t give a positive answer to everyone’s concerns. He always maintained a posture of learning bully, and we didn’t see any apology or sympathy.” Li Yanhong said.
Previously, Ruyu technology was exposed that it had been unable to pay wages for six months before the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, the problem of salary arrears of Ruoyu technology was listed on the hot search list for many times, which once again aroused heated discussion from the outside world.
At the end of March this year, according to an employee of Red Star capital Bureau and Rouyu technology, he has received five emails with salary arrears in six months since September last year. The contents of the emails are roughly the same: “the company’s financing is advancing, the funds are about to arrive, and the salary will be paid immediately” .
According to his calculation, Rouyu technology has defaulted on his salary by nearly 100000 yuan. The employee also said that the number of employees of Ruoyu technology has decreased from 1800 to 700.
Li Yanhong told the daily economic news: “in March 2021, the company was already short of funds. At that time, senior executives at the VP (vice president) level had been in arrears. The salary of the management post was in arrears from March to may, and the salary in July to September was 50%. The salary in August was paid normally in September, and the salary in September was only received 40% in October. Since then, the salary payment began to become more and more chaotic.”
By November last year, the problem of salary arrears of Ruoyu technology began to break out completely. “Because the salary in October was suspended in full, the company promised to pay the salary in October on November 30, but it didn’t materialize. It received the salary in November at the end of December. Since December, it hasn’t received the salary for several months.” Li Yanhong said. Since she owed wages, she has been a little numb in the face of the excuse that “the investment will come soon and the salary is expected to be paid back next month”.
But what Li Yanhong didn’t expect is that the “self rescue” method launched by the company’s senior management is to give employees a long holiday.
was valued at $6 billion,
what’s the matter with Ruoyu technology
The above news made many people feel sad. Rouyu technology was once a unicorn valued at $6 billion.
In 2012, it was established in the production of flexible media, smart media and intelligent transportation applications, and mainly provided flexible electronic solutions for customers in the fields of sports, entertainment and intelligent transportationP align = “center” Image Source: screenshot of official website
In 2020, Rouyu technology completed the round f financing of US $300 million and even heard the news of going to the US for IPO. However, it then turned to the A-share science and innovation board and planned to raise 14.4 billion yuan, of which 7.2 billion yuan was used to supplement working capital. This star start-up company has a good time.
However, in 2021, according to the website of Shanghai Stock Exchange (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Stock Exchange”), the initial public offering of Shenzhen Rouyu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Rouyu technology”) and its listing on the science and innovation board were terminated.
On the other hand, since the establishment of Ruoyu technology, it has been “haloing”.
Its founder, Liu Zihong, is known as a “genius boy”. At the age of 17, he was admitted to Tsinghua University with the top spot in the science college entrance examination in Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province. After graduating from the Department of electronic engineering of Tsinghua University, Liu Zihong received a doctorate from the Department of electronic engineering of Stanford University in the United States. He was born as a “Xueba” and is also a distinguished expert of national and overseas high-level talents.
In May 2012, Liu Zihong returned from the United States to start a business. He and his other two Tsinghua University and Stanford alumni Wei Peng and fan Junchao jointly invested 100000 yuan to establish Rouyu technology.
In August 2014, Rouyu technology released the world’s thinnest color flexible display, with a thickness of only 0.01mm and a curl radius of 1mm, which was a subversive technical level at that time.
Rouyu technology is highly sought after by capital only from August 2017 to November 2019, Rouyu technology obtained seven rounds of financing, including many well-known investment institutions such as CITIC Capital, Shenzhen Venture Capital, Hangzhou cornerstone, poly (Hengqin) capital and so on. In 2020, Ruoyu technology also ranked among the top 12 of the “2020 China’s top 200 new economy unicorns” with a valuation of US $6 billion and became the top of the “2020 China’s top 100 scientific and technological innovation enterprises” of “Chinese entrepreneurs”.
Xu Xiaoping, a famous angel investor and founder of Zhenge fund, also sighed for the loss of Rouyu Technology: “every time I see its good news, my heart is like a knife. As an angel investor, my pride is crushed.”
but Ruoyu technology seems to be in a strange circle. It keeps financing, but it is always “short of money”
According to the Red Star capital Bureau, it is generally believed that the previous abandonment of the listing on the science and innovation board has plunged Rouyu into financial difficulties. But in fact, before launching the listing, Rouyu’s financial situation had problems.
In 2020, Rouyu technology shelved the plan of IPO in the United States and turned to the A-share science and Innovation Board on the last day. It plans to raise 14.4 billion yuan, of which 7.2 billion yuan is used to supplement working capital. However, once the prospectus was disclosed, the current situation of the tight capital chain of Rouyu technology was exposed to the public. From the revenue data, from 2017 to 2019 and from January to June 2020, the company’s operating revenue was 647267 million yuan, 109 million yuan, 227 million yuan and 116 million yuan respectively, including many “accounts receivable” that had not been received.
In addition, Rouyu technology has been in a state of loss. Within the above timeline, the net profits attributable to the shareholders of the parent company were -359 million yuan, – 802 million yuan, – 1073 million yuan and -961 million yuan respectively. In other words, the company has only realized a revenue of 517 million yuan in three and a half years, but the loss is as high as 3.2 billion yuan, and the range of loss has the potential to continue to expand.
While the annual loss continues to expand, the cash flow of Rouyu technology is not optimistic. Within the above time line, the net outflow of the company’s operating cash flow reached 358 million yuan, 612 million yuan, 811 million yuan and 386 million yuan respectively, with increasing liquidity pressure.
In the second half of 2019, Liu Zihong, fan Junchao and other four executives also borrowed funds from Rouyu technology, which shows the extent of the company’s lack of money. After withdrawing its listing application in February 2021, the plight of “lack of money” of Ruoyu technology became more and more obvious. Until half a year later, it could not even pay the salary of employeesP align = “center” senior executives of the company have borrowed funds from Rouyu technology
Looking closely at the problem of “lack of money” of Ruoyu technology, in addition to financing and loss at the same time, the most important reason is Ruoyu’s lack of “hematopoietic” ability
Rouyu technology has been questioned from beginning to end. At first, it was questioned that the product could not be developed, and then it was considered that the product could not be mass produced after development. After mass production, the product was accused of low yield and insufficient production capacity, and then it was questioned that it lacked application scenarios and could not sell products.
In fact, Rouyu is not without products, but “can’t sell”. Facing the b-end, Rouyu launched a full flexible screen with “low cost and high yield”. So far, it has not been widely used in the products of any mainstream mobile phone manufacturer.
For C-end products, for example, the flexible screen smart phone flexpai of Rouyu, the annual sales volume of its mobile phone business is only about 7112 according to the estimation of 21st Century Business Review. Even if the consumer revenue comes from the mobile phone business, the sales volume in the first half of 2020 is only 14700 units this figure is pitifully small compared with Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung, which also have folding screen phones
In addition to mobile phones, Rouyu has also launched real wireless earphones, fashionable clothes and hats, selfie poles, smart handwriting books, etc., which have had a mediocre response in the market.
Due to the lack of long-term market orders of Ruoyu technology, resulting in the low capacity utilization of the company The data disclosed in prospectus can also confirm this. In 2018, 2019 and the first half of 2020, the capacity utilization rate of Rouyu was 15.1%, 31.2% and 5.3% respectively, which also means that the company’s capacity is idle for most of the time
