A 35-year-old woman from Northeast China has built a business worth 120 billion.

The venture capital circle was greatly shaken.

According to investment industry sources, Deel, a global human resources technology giant, announced a $300 million (approximately RMB 2.1 billion) Series E financing round. The investment was participated by Ribbit Capital, Coatue, and A16Z, and the company's valuation soared to $17.3 billion (approximately RMB 120 billion).

Deel was founded by Wang Shuo, a post - 90s entrepreneur. Born and raised in Northeast China, she was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After dropping out of her master's program, she returned to Beijing to start a business. With a keen insight into the trend of remote work, she founded Deel in early 2019 and it quickly rose to prominence.

Before we knew it, the post - 90s generation, armed with technology, is taking the global stage.

A Girl from Northeast China Creates a Super Unicorn

In 1990, Wang Shuo was born in Shenyang, Liaoning. She once recalled her growth experience - her family was engaged in the motorcycle export business, and she went overseas with her mother at the age of 16. During the day, she attended classes, and at night, she often drove a forklift to help move vehicles. On weekends, she sold scooters at the flea market.

This experience sowed the seeds for her future entrepreneurship - not just talking about business models, but facing the real - world operating logic.

Later, Wang Shuo was admitted to MIT, majoring in mechanical engineering and pursuing a master's degree. However, after one year of postgraduate study, she decided to drop out because the courses at school could not satisfy her desire for practice and innovation.

In 2015, she returned to Beijing and founded Aeris with her classmates. As a co - founder and chief technology officer, the company's main business was air purifiers. Six years later, the company was sold to another robotics company, iRobot, for $100 million.

However, Wang Shuo left Aeris at the end of 2018, determined to start another business. At that time, remote work was still a niche trend, but she keenly captured the huge pain points behind global employment.

"Two signals convinced me that change was coming," Wang Shuo recalled in an interview. "One was the amazing speed of Alipay and WeChat Pay's ground - promotion in China after I returned, while overseas payment was still a pain point. The other was that I found large multinational companies had started to try hybrid work, with an endless stream of collaboration tools, but cross - border payroll and compliant employment were still extremely complex."

So, she joined hands with her MIT alumnus Alex Bouaziz and officially launched Deel in 2019 - a SaaS platform aiming to simplify the global employment process.

The initial model was simple. Starting with basic "cross - currency payroll payment", Deel launched an online payment platform. The goal was clear: to enable a New York company to pay the salary of a Singaporean designer as easily as paying its local employees.

Wang Shuo also took a wrong turn. Initially, they planned to target individual (C - end) freelancers, but the result was not satisfactory. They even had to help people collect unpaid wages at one point, and couldn't even earn $10,000. Soon, the company shifted to the B2B field. Wang Shuo spent six weeks interviewing more than 200 companies and redesigned the product, focusing on cross - border payment and local contracts. This strategy worked, and Deel quickly gained a large number of corporate customers.

In short, traditional cross - border recruitment and payroll payment often require companies to connect with local service providers in different countries, making cross - regional salary management and accounting difficult. Even large service providers like ADP and SAP still rely on third - party outsourcing networks at the back - end. Deel integrates this fragmented manual operation into an automated software and solves problems such as remote onboarding, data filling, compliance application, and tax payment in one - stop service, eliminating the need for companies to spend a lot of energy researching complex local regulations.

It's all about seizing opportunities. The sudden outbreak of the pandemic triggered an explosion in the demand for remote work. Deel seized this opportunity, and its business volume skyrocketed.

"Deel's speed is a continuous driving force. We never postpone what can be done today until tomorrow," Wang Shuo said. She also mentioned that Deel had a global vision from the first day of its establishment and made early deployments in regions such as Asia - Pacific and Latin America. Only in this way can it quickly re - predict and adjust when the market changes.

From 2020 to 2021, the company's annual revenue soared from $4 million to $54 million, a 13 - fold increase. By 2023, its revenue exceeded $500 million, making it one of the fastest - growing SaaS companies ever. Now, Deel processes $22 billion in payroll for 37,000 corporate clients in 150 countries every year. At the beginning of this year, the company's annual recurring revenue exceeded $1 billion.

Some people say that the special period has created today's Deel. But as the old saying goes, opportunities always favor the prepared.

Valued at RMB 120 Billion, Backed by a Flock of VC/PE

So far, a long list of investors has gathered behind Deel.

As early as its establishment in 2019, Y Combinator invested $150,000 in Deel at a valuation of $2.1 million. In the same year, Deel completed a $3.85 million seed - round financing, with investors including Weekend Fund, Soma Capital, Quiet Capital, legendary Silicon Valley investor Elad Gil, and Avichal Garg.

In the following years, Deel maintained a financing frequency of at least once a year. In 2020, Deel successively announced the completion of a $14 million Series A financing led by A16z and a $30 million Series B financing led by Spark Capital, with a valuation of $60 million at that time.

Anish Acharya, a partner at A16Z, recalled that when he first contacted Deel, the company had only ten people but had grand ambitions. "Today, Wang Shuo and her co - founders are still continuously working to make Deel the global infrastructure for work. Their product development speed and early investment in artificial intelligence make it easier for customers around the world to use and accept."

In April of the following year, Deel announced the completion of a $156 million Series C financing, led by YC, with participation from existing investors A16Z and Spark Capital. Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the founder of DreamWorks, and Jeff Wilke, a former Amazon executive, also participated in this round of financing.

By then, the three - year - old company had joined the unicorn club with a valuation of $1.25 billion.

Subsequently, Deel announced the completion of a $425 million Series D financing, and the company's valuation reached $5.5 billion. This round of financing was led by Coatue, and more than 30 investors, including Altimeter Capital, A16Z, YC, Spark Capital, Greenbay Ventures, and Neo, also participated.

The previous round of financing took place in 2022, with an amount of $50 million and a valuation as high as $12 billion. This round was led by the Emerson Fund founded by the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Most recently, Deel announced a $300 million Series E financing participated by Ribbit Capital, Coatue, and A16Z, and the company's valuation rose to $17.3 billion.

"We've been following Deel since its inception," said Micky Malka, the founder of Ribbit. "In such a complex field, it's hard to find a company that can reach such a scale in five years. The company's revenue reflects the value of its services."

In June this year, the list of New Fortune magazine showed that 35 - year - old Wang Shuo ranked on the list of China's post - 90s billionaires with a net worth of RMB 8.6 billion. "We're just getting started," Wang Shuo wrote on Deel's official website. "Although we've come a long way, each milestone and each new customer remind us that there's still a long way to go in the future."

Chinese Post - 90s Entrepreneurs Conquer the World

Through Wang Shuo, we can see that a new generation of entrepreneurs is sweeping the world with an irresistible momentum. In China, a global vision combined with technological innovation has become the key words for post - 90s entrepreneurship.

We have to mention Liu Jingkang of Insta360. In June this year, Insta360 was officially listed on the A - share market, and Liu Jingkang became the youngest founder to ring the bell on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. Subsequently, the company's stock price fluctuated several times, and its market value once exceeded RMB 140 billion. As of now, Insta360's market value still exceeds RMB 100 billion.

It's worth noting that since the day Liu Jingkang decided to engage in intelligent hardware, Insta360 has set its sights on the global market, with overseas sales accounting for up to 80% at one point. It has become another calling card for "Made in China".

Behind Unitree Robotics is also a post - 90s entrepreneur. Wang Xingxing, who graduated from Zhejiang Sci - Tech University with a bachelor's degree and Shanghai University with a master's degree, has been good at making various small inventions since childhood. At the age of 19 in college, he made his first robot. He was only 26 years old when he received his first investment. The Unitree Robotics he founded has attracted a long list of investors.

There is also Zilliz Robotics, with another post - 90s entrepreneur behind it - Peng Zhihui, a Bilibili up - master with 2.7 million followers, known as Zhihui Jun. He graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China for both his bachelor's and master's degrees and was selected for Huawei's "Genius Youth Program". At the end of 2022, he officially announced his departure from Huawei to pursue his dream and passion, and embarked on the journey of robot entrepreneurship.

Looking around, there are many such faces: Yang Zhilin of DarkSide, Zhang Junbin of Yunjing Intelligence, Wang He of Galaxy Universal, Zeng Guoyang of Mianbi Intelligence, Hu Yuanming of Meshy... Their faces may still look young, but they have founded amazing companies from scratch with knowledge and technology.

As Zhang Wei, the chairman of Cornerstone Capital, summarized: "They grew up in an era of economic take - off and embracing the world. They are more confident, have a more global perspective, and are more creative, rebellious, and challenging. They are ambitious, want to change the world, and have grand dreams of making great products."

If the previous generation of entrepreneurs was good at business operations and sales, then this group of young founders focuses more on technology. Undoubtedly, they are lucky, growing rapidly on the wave of technological explosion.

Chasing the sun and stars, reaching for the stars. The global journey of the post - 90s generation has just begun.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012), author: Wang Lu, published by 36Kr with authorization.