On April 21st, it was reported that Hema founder Hou Yi (flower name: Lao Cai) and former Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong were interested in jointly bidding for Hema for $2 billion. Regarding this, Hema responded today that the news is untrue.
In 2015, Hou Yi joined Alibaba and founded a new retail enterprise, Hema. In March of this year, Alibaba issued an internal letter announcing that Hou Yi had officially retired at the age of 60, and that the position of CEO of Hema would be concurrently held by Hema CFO Yan Xiaolei (flower name: Baihe).
On September 10, 2023, Alibaba Group announced that Zhang Yong had officially stepped down from his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Alibaba Group, and Zhang Yong subsequently stepped down from all management positions at Alibaba. At the same time, Alibaba Group announced an investment of 1 billion US dollars to support Zhang Yong in establishing a future oriented technology fund, assisting Alibaba in creating a better ecological environment for its future technology layout. On March 21st of this year, Chenyi Investment, founded in 2019, announced that Zhang Yong had officially joined Chenyi Fund, with founder Liu Xiaodan serving as its managing partner.