Du Jun Responds to Li Bojie’s Statement, Clarifies Investment Payment in Stages
Du Jun responds to Li Bojie’s statement, clarifying that investments are paid in stages.
On February 26, 2024, ABCDE Capital made the first payment of $500,000, with a subsequent $1,000,000 contingent on project progress, team stability, information disclosure, and other conditions, in line with the fund's regular operations towards LPs.
In June 2024, the team presented a demo that was deemed below expectations, and starting in July, Li Bojie largely stopped responding to investors, deactivated his Telegram account, and exited group chats; by December, the team had not provided complete financial statements before his departure.
Original text:
Regarding the investment matters mentioned by Li Bojie, I would like to add a few facts:
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On February 26, 2024, ABCDE Capital paid the first $500,000 investment to Metagent, founded by Li Bojie. The parties clearly agreed at that time: to first pay $500,000, and then arrange for the subsequent $1,000,000 investment based on agreements. This is consistent with the normal investment operations of the fund.
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Early project investments are not a one-time, unconditional full payment. Subsequent funding arrangements typically require a comprehensive assessment based on project progress, team stability, information disclosure, financial conditions, and relevant conditions stipulated in the investment agreement. As fund managers, ABCDE needs to be accountable to LPs and must ensure that every subsequent funding has sufficient justification.
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In June 2024, about four months after the first investment was received, the team presented a very rough (apologies for the subjective remark) demo to investors. Combined with publicly available project information (the project’s main social media account @metagent_xyz has published a total of 14 tweets throughout its lifecycle, allowing everyone to research the project’s progress and quality), team communication, and feedback from other investment institutions, we believe the overall project progress did not meet expectations, raising further concerns about the team’s subsequent execution.
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Starting in July 2024, Li Bojie basically stopped responding to questions from investors in the group, with communication handled by Metagent partner Zhuang Siyuan. Subsequently, Li Bojie deactivated his Telegram account and exited related group chats.
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On December 5, 2024, Li Bojie informed via email that he had left Metagent and stated that the company’s funds were insufficient. However, from the time the first investment was received in February 2024 until December 2024, the Metagent team, centered around Li Bojie, never provided ABCDE with complete and detailed financial statements. Afterward, we continued to request Metagent to provide complete and clear financial statements and operational information, but Li Bojie and Zhuang Siyuan were unable to provide sufficient and clear responses.
Writing as far as I can...
Source: Public information
ABAB AI Insight
Du Jun, as a co-founder of ABCDE Capital, has previously participated in early-stage Web3/AI project investments and has publicly emphasized the governance requirements for the fund to be accountable to LPs; in the 2024 Metagent case, the institution adopted a tranche funding mechanism, typically used to control early project risks, consistent with tools commonly used by funds like a16z in the AI Agent sector, but it also exposed execution conflicts when the founding team lacked sufficient information disclosure.
In terms of capital flow, ABCDE first injected $500,000 for a quick entry, with subsequent funding tied to demo quality, social media activity (the project had only 14 tweets), and financial transparency; if standards were not met, funding would be paused, aiming to protect LP interests and avoid sunk costs; this conditional trigger mechanism reflects VC standards for risk control in the high-risk AI/Web3 field, rather than a one-time full payment, with the motivation to mitigate the impact of a single project failure on the overall fund.
Similar cases include multiple AI Agent startups from 2024-2025, where founding teams faced financing bottlenecks due to slow demo iterations or communication breakdowns, contrasting with previous accusations against some Web3 projects of "running away after funding"; Metagent is currently in a typical early-stage failure transition phase, with the project stagnating after the founder's departure, highlighting the industry's shift from rapid financing to sustainable execution.
Essentially, this reflects regulatory changes (here regarding the strengthening of governance agreements and fiduciary responsibilities of funds): phased funding + strict post-investment disclosure has become the new norm, as LPs face increased due diligence pressure from VCs, coupled with the high failure rate of Web3/AI projects, forcing institutions to shift from "trust-driven" to "evidence-driven" funding, achieving risk transfer through milestone conditions to avoid capital being disorderly concentrated in teams with weak execution capabilities.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
Commitment is not payment; tranche is the touchstone of trust.
Founders sell visions, investors buy execution; without disclosure, there is no follow-up.
Funds flow in batches, risks are layered: giving everything at once is gambling, while phased verification is governance.