What kind of method is it to decrypt the lithography capital industry +VC outside the era of independent lithography?

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Microshadow Capital defines this model as the "Industry +VC" VC2.0 model, which means using VC investment methods to participate in industrial investment, and at the same time introducing a large amount of industrial resources, so that the industry LP behind the fund can generate capital connection with the invested company.

Microlithography Capital recently held its first media communication meeting, and this investment institution hidden behind the microlithography era finally unveiled its mystery. This investment fund called "Microlithography Capital" does not belong to the Microlithography Era, but uses the Microlithography platform to maintain complete independence in operation and decision-making. Microshadow Capital defines this model as the "Industry +VC" VC2.0 model, which means using VC investment methods to participate in industrial investment, and at the same time introducing a large amount of industrial resources, so that the industry LP behind the fund can generate capital connection with the invested company. After the communication meeting that day, Yi En interviewed Zhang Yi, managing director of Microfilm Capital, to try to provide an in-depth interpretation of this unique cultural industry fund.

Independent investment landscape

The relationship between lithography Capital and lithography Times is not just as simple as the name. lithography Times is one of the shareholders of lithography Capital, and Lin Ning, founder and CEO of lithography Times, is also one of the core decision-makers of lithography Capital. First, lithography Times is one of lithography Capital's important platform resources, but the investment departments of lithography Capital and lithography Times are independent of each other. This independence is not only reflected in the capital structure, but also in the business methods.

Xu Dongsheng, partner of lithography Capital, said,"On the first day of its establishment, we seriously considered its independent operation. We have set up a firewall between lithography times in terms of operating systems, project selection, decision-making processes, and risk prevention and control systems. For example, strategic investments at the lithography era level will be completed by the lithography era investment department, while lithography capital will focus on projects and layouts that are beneficial to fund investors. In terms of project selection, the primary factor considered by lithography Capital is the return on investment, rather than the strategic significance of the project to the lithography era. In fact, projects with large returns can reflect greater strategic value."

Microfilm Capital invests in projects for pan-entertainment content in the three major fields of films, performances and exhibitions, and sports, as well as equity investments in the entire industry chain such as original content, production and distribution marketing, and venues of film, performances and sports. The investment strategy is based on the comprehensive transformation of the Internet and uses the tools of the Internet to invest in a new business model in the cultural industry. The investment stage mainly focuses on the middle and early stages, but it does not rule out investing in particularly attractive mature companies.

The following are some of the transcripts of lithography Capital:

What is "industry +VC"?

Tang Xiaoming, chairman of the Microfilm Capital Investment Committee, is a veteran in the cultural industry investment community and previously worked for China Cultural Industry Fund. Tang Xiaoming said,"With the rapid growth of listed companies from all walks of life, everyone has begun to use capital means to layout upstream and downstream industries, and around their own businesses, they have established M & A funds or their own investment departments to make strategic investments. However, people from PE and VC are investing in pan-industry industries, and their investment scope spans several industries. They will be inferior to industrial capital in terms of professionalism and depth of reach."

In Tang Xiaoming's eyes, industrial funds are an effective way to play. "I resigned last year to start a business. After a lot of industry exchanges, everyone agreed that industry +VC is a good direction. What is the concept of industry +VC? First, introduce companies with strategic capabilities in the industry as fund partners, but do not control them and maintain an independent VC structure; second, form a mature team with tacit cooperation and senior working background in the cultural and financial fields; Third, establish a complete organizational structure and incentive system for VC and PE companies to promote the company's development."

Market view: Is the decline in box office growth due to rising house prices? Performance sports will become the next rapid growth point

. In Tang Xiaoming's view, there is a simple but important reason why box office growth in the first half of the year was not as good as expected."At the end of last year, houses began to rise, which had a strong crowding out effect. People who buy houses are the main crowd. In the absence of income growth, the crowding out effect of this accidental factor on consumption is obvious. Therefore, when looking at investment and consumption, we must follow population consumption."

Tang Xiaoming believes that the cultural industry will still experience a period of rapid development of integration. At least large media groups will emerge. In the future, more and more super-large mergers and acquisitions will appear in this market. Although the film growth rate has slowed down this year, it is believed that it will still maintain a relatively high growth rate. The next high-speed growth point, or investment hotspot, should be performances and ground entertainment, and then sports.

The order of movies, performances and sports is related to price. Movie tickets are the cheapest, followed by show tickets. However, the current popularity of sports is not high, and sports require high equipment and equipment. Currently, only a small number of elite classes are playing, and the time for scale and industrialization has not yet fully arrived. With the application of mobile Internet technology, there will be a large number of gold VC investments and early venture capital investments in the next five years.

"We believe that two phenomena coexist in cultural industry companies. The first one is large-scale integration. Traditional companies that already have capital listed company platforms will integrate. At the same time, a number of startups with new business formats will also emerge. In these companies, we hope that a new unicorn will emerge."

Three elements for selecting a company: market space, industry pain points, and the team

's criteria for screening investment targets for lithography capital. Zhang Yi said,"Different stages of industry development have different dimensions of inspection, but we mainly focus on three elements:

First, the company The market space for the business direction chosen must be large enough, which is the prerequisite.

Second, whether what the company has to do solves the pain points in the current cultural market. At different stages of cultural industry development, industry pain points are different. At present, excellent content creation and IP development and operation companies are one of the focuses of lithography capital investment. As the broadcast and distribution channels become more and more abundant, content is the most original and the focus of current grabbing. Although the forms of scarcity are reflected in different stages, the essence of the cultural industry will always be content at its core. Based on the current stage of China, it has not yet reached the stage of attaching importance to the development of original content. It is more focused on using it and adapting IP that already has a large number of fans. The current situation is that after many people grab IP, they will not develop it, but simply consume it or waste it. Therefore, we attach great importance to companies with content creation capabilities and IP development and operation capabilities using industrial thinking. We believe that such companies are currently the most scarce in the market.

Third, looking at the team, people are the focus of the cultural industry. Without content production capabilities, the company's profit-making capabilities cannot last long. The cultural field is most prone to short-lived companies. This is mainly due to traditional project operation thinking. Many companies may get up just after they hit the right project. But if it is operated using work-based process industry thinking, it will require much higher teams. A team with this ability will naturally have high risk resistance and corporate stability."

Investment standards for film projects: Projects with head content, new types or strong control

. So far, Microfilm Capital has invested in several film projects, including "Journey to the West: The Monkey King Three Beats the White Bone". When selecting film projects, the most important thing for Microfilm Capital is not the director and cast, but the following aspects:

First, the companies that the invested companies participate in the organization of the game. Such projects can achieve earlier intervention, deeper understanding of the project, and higher control.

Second, projects produced by leading companies, such as projects produced by Huayi, Wanda and other companies with successful operation experience. These projects are relatively transparent and reliable. There are still many irregularities in the current operation of film project investment. Even if the box office is transparent, what is actually distributed to investors may not be the same as calculated based on public box office figures. There will be various hidden costs, such as increased fees for publicity and distribution, increased fees for copyright revenue, etc. Therefore, for projects with low trust and control, we will be very cautious when investing.

Third, new genres of movies. As China movie users are rapidly updating and iterating, their preferences for movies are changing a lot, which has led to demand for new genres of movies.

Fourth, the lithography era participates in the investment or organization of some film projects. In this way, we can intervene in the middle and late stages and make the risks more controllable.

Film projects are more about teamwork. From finding directors and actors to finding publicity and marketing teams, it may take one to two years if social resources are allocated. However, if in the ecology of lithography capital, post-investment management can greatly shorten the time for resource allocation.

"I invested in dozens of companies, all of which are top companies in the industry, and everyone must admit that it is already very strategic. The strategic effect of gathering the CEOs of dozens of leading companies in the industry is equivalent to a large-scale media asset shareholding and holding company." Tang Xiaoming said.

It is reported that the Microfilm Capital Fund has a scale of more than 4 billion yuan and mainly invests in four major fields: film and television, performances, sports, and new media.

Editor: queenie