Founding member takeover

"

Author | Wang Leyan Truman

The domestic autopilot Sima Xiaoxi's star was exposed to major personnel changes.

According to 36Kr, Lawrence Steyn, its chief financial officer, left earlier this month, and Wang Haojun, one of the founders of Ma Xiao Zhixing, took over as the chief financial officer.

In this regard, Ma Xiao Zhixing responded that Lawrence stine did not serve as CFO of Ma Xiao Zhixing for personal reasons, thanked him for his contribution to Ma Xiao Zhixing, and wished him all the best in his future work.

It is reported that Wang Haojun, as one of the founding members of Ma Xiao Zhixing, has held many core leadership roles.

Source: Ma Xiao Zhixing

At present, the column of CFO of Ma Xiao Zhixing in official website has been updated to Wang Haojun, and Lawrence stine has also announced on LinkedIn that he will become a partner of a private equity firm in new york.

Sting and Wang Haojun

Lawrence Steyn's departure is a bit sudden. After all, it's a critical moment for Ma Xiao Zhixing IPO.

In fact, Lawrence Sting has been a member of Ma Xiao Star for less than two years.

On June 25th, 20021,Ma Xiao Zhixing officially announced that Lawrence stine, former vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase Investment Bank, would join the company as the chief financial officer.

Source: Ma Xiao Zhixing

In the official announcement appointment at that time, Ma Xiao Zhixing made a high-profile statement that Lawrence stine would help the company's business growth and global layout, and promote the large-scale deployment of autonomous driving technology.

Peng Jun, founder and CEO of Ma Xiao Zhixing, gave Lawrence Sting a great welcome at that time, saying that "he will promote the next stage of the company's development" and "Lawrence's outstanding global vision and professional knowledge will open a new chapter for the company's development."

The "next development stage" mentioned by Peng Jun at that time means that Ma Xiao Zhixing has taken a key step in the capital market. At that time, it was reported that the company was considering listing in the United States to help it realize the commercialization of driverless car service.

Therefore, Ma Zhixing is very concerned about Lawrence Sting. According to public information, Lawrence stine was an executive in the financial industry before joining Ma Xiao Zhixing.

Source: Ma Xiao Zhixing

Lawrence Sting graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree, and then obtained an MBA from Wharton Business School.

He has also served as managing director of Morgan Stanley Investment Company and executive director of Goldman Sachs Investment Company, and has rich financial and financial experience.

At that time, Lawrence stine said when he joined Ma Xiao Zhixing, "I look forward to contributing to the company's goals, promoting business growth and enhancing corporate value."

Obviously, the honeymoon period between the two parties did not last until Ma Xiao Zhixing rang the bell, and Wang Haojun, who succeeded Lawrence Sting, was an old man in Ma Xiao Zhixing.

Wang Haojun graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University with a bachelor's degree, and then went to the United States for further study, and obtained a doctorate in computer science from the University of Southern California. His research interests are multidimensional data and mobile location services.

Source: Wang Haojun LinkedIn

It is reported that Wang Yijun once served as the chief operating officer of Zhixing in Ma Xiao, the technical director of autopilot map and positioning module, and the R&D center in the United States. However, COO teaching is no longer based in Ma Xiao.

According to public information, before joining Ma Xiao Zhixing, Wang Haojun worked in IBM Silicon Valley Lab and Baidu American R&D Center, engaged in the development of database engines and big data information systems, and once led the development of Baidu's self-driving map and positioning system as an early member.

If Lawrence Sting is a finance major, then Wang Haojun is a real technical school.

Source: Ma Xiao Zhixing

Ma Xiao Zhixing believes that "in today's commercialization, CFO should have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the company, and have the ability to lead the company to expand its business direction and ultimately promote the process of commercialization. Wang Haojun is undoubtedly the best candidate for this position. "

Commercialization has become an important thing.

Two years ago, Ma Xiao Zhixing hoped to acquire the company through special purpose and go public at a valuation of US$ 654.38+0.2 billion, but the plan was shelved due to the change of the situation. Now with the change of CFO position, it is hard to say that this plan will not be affected.

Ma Xiao Star, as a star representative of domestic self-driving enterprises, was founded at the end of 20 16. It was co-founded by Peng Jun, the former chief architect of Baidu North America R&D, and Lou Tiancheng, a domestic "programming master".

At present, Peng Jun is the CEO of the company, and Lou Tiancheng is the chief technology officer of the company. In addition, Yao Qizhi, Dean of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Information of Tsinghua University, served as the chief consultant of Ma Xiao Zhixing.

Source: Ma Xiao Zhixing

Perhaps thanks to the eye-catching of the founder team, Ma Xiao Zhixing has been the darling of capital from the beginning. It has been favored by many investment institutions such as Sequoia Capital, IDG Capital, Morningstar Capital, Junlian Capital, Ming Kai Investment, Toyota, FAW Group and Ontario Pension Fund. At present, eight rounds of financing have been completed, and the total amount of financing exceeds 1 1 billion US dollars.

After completing the first round of D financing in March last year, the valuation of Ma Xiao Star has reached $8.5 billion, making it the most valuable company among autonomous driving companies in China.

Source: Ma Xiao Zhixing

Lawrence stine, who was also the CFO of Ma Xiao Star at that time, also said: "The company's financial situation is very stable, which will provide a solid foundation for the development of Ma Xiao Star in the next few years until we begin the process of large-scale commercialization."

However, the subsequent capital road was full of twists and turns, followed by the adjustment of the business side and the impact of the loss of core personnel.

At the All hands event of 20021,Ma Xiao Star publicly adjusted the self-driving truck business: the R&D team of truck self-driving was merged into the R&D team. Later, some media reported that after the adjustment, Ma Xiaozhi's truck team was only 10, and almost all the truck teams in the R&D center in the United States were dissolved.

Source: Ma Xiao Zhixing

Pan Zhenhao, general manager of auto-driving technology in truck department, and Sun Haowen, head of domestic auto-driving PnC Group, left their jobs one after another after business adjustment and started a new career in the field of auto-driving.

Zhao Ruixuan, vice president of Ma Xiao Zhixing, who was in charge of strategic cooperation and financing, also left his post one after another and founded a company named Xing Xing Technology, whose main business is also to mark Ma Xiao Zhika, a subsidiary of Ma Xiao Zhixing.

Ma Xiao Star has repeatedly shelved the IPO road, which can be said to be a true portrayal of the difficulty of autonomous driving in the current capital market.

Since the second half of last year, the cold wave of autonomous driving has spread to the whole industry, and many autonomous driving companies have laid off employees or even gone bankrupt. With the news of "canceling the truck division", "founder discord" and "internal structure turbulence and layoffs", Ma Xiao Zhixing has become more and more passive in public opinion.

Source: Ma Xiao Zhixing

Ma Xiao Zhixing has not publicly announced new financing income since it completed the D round of financing in March last year. Obviously, after the capital market returns to rationality, Ma Xiao Zhixing needs to make blood by himself.

The scheme of "dimension reduction" to L2+ front assisted driving has become a hot potato in Robotaxi's eyes, and Ma Xiao Zhixing has also accelerated its layout. On June 5438+ 10 this year, Ma Xiao Zhixing announced the establishment of POV of passenger car division, and launched the intelligent driving software brand "Ma Xiao Know the Road".

For today's Ma Xiao Zhixing, the most important thing is to form a sustainable income. After Wang Haojun became CFO, how to better realize commercialization has become a top priority.

This article comes from the author's Che Yi No.2 Super Electric Laboratory, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author in any form. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.