No matter how hard you try, you can’t get a single “life-saving power” from capital.
Author | Duchen
Source | Investor (ID: touzijias)
No matter how hard you try, you can’t get a single “life-saving power” from capital.
Who would have thought that that yearTmall’s Double 11 sales topped the list for 11 consecutive years, with annual shipments exceeding 50 million unitsThe “national big-name” Roma Shi power bank has now become theThe factory is shut down, tens of millions of dollars are being executed, and the company is only one step away from bankruptcy.
Recently, an exclusive piece of news from Blue Whale News has put the former power bank giant into the center of public opinion again. According to people familiar with the matter, Rome’s restructuring plan has not been implemented for a long time. The core problem lies in debt.The investors required that the existing debts should be dealt with almost before considering capital injection; the plan proposed by Romans to the suppliers was to pay off the debt at a 30% discount.
At the beginning of this year, there was news in the capital circle that Romans, who was deeply in the quagmire, launched a campaign called“Rebirth Plan”internal reorganization,It tried to rely on capital to “charge” to forcefully continue its life, and even got involved with a number of leading VCs such as Jinshajiang.
Everyone thought this was a capital redemption,But who would have imagined that ten months later, the investors did not accept the “painting cake” thing at all.It is required that the debt must be “cleaned” before settlement.The solution that Romans gave to suppliers to solve their problems turned out to be a post-dated bad check with a “30% discount on repayment”.
What’s even more magical is that Romans has not yet entered formal bankruptcy and reorganization procedures, nor has it announced the complete audited total debt.
一
In June last year, a sudden “quality storm” directly tore off the fig leaf of Roma.
Due to serious defects in the raw materials of the battery cells, Romas had to bite the bullet and issue a recall announcement.Nearly 490,000 power banks were recalled in one fell swoop due to the risk of burning.Immediately afterwards, the State Administration for Market RegulationIn a heavy blow, the 3C certification certificates of many of its products were revoked in accordance with the law, and all major e-commerce platforms were immediately removed from the shelves.Misfortune never comes alone;A ban issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China completely cut off his livelihood.It is strictly prohibited to carry power banks without 3C logo or recalled models on domestic flights.
Products could not be sold, cash flow was instantly cut off, and hundreds of millions of supplier payments came over like an avalanche. Core foundry Zhuoyi Technology and others filed a direct complaintTake it to court and demand recovery of hundreds of millions of yuan in arrears.At a time of internal and external embarrassment and desperation,Romans launched the so-called “rebirth plan” and tried to win over Jinshajiang Venture Capital to continue its life.
However, capital is always snobbish and rational.VC money does not come from strong winds.The first reaction when investing is not to look at how brilliant you have been in the past, but to settle an account first.Will the invested funds be instantly frozen and directly transferred away by the court’s dozens of enforcement measures as soon as they arrive?Data from Qichacha shows that as of August of that year, the total amount of executions against Roman subjects had exceeded 22.04 million yuan, and this was just the tip of the iceberg.
In order to get investors to nod, Romans had to bite the bullet and offered suppliers a “30% off settlement” and “debt-for-equity swap” plan.In their view, this is called surviving with broken arms and overcoming difficulties together. But in the eyes of creditors, this is simply ridiculous. Industry insiders pointedly pointed out that,The 30% discount plan means that small and medium-sized suppliers must first unconditionally absorb more than 60% of real money losses.The so-called “liquidation after profits” is for a company that has been shut down for many years, cannot even get the most basic 3C certification back, and cannot put its products on the shelves.It’s like a postdated bad check that can never be cashed.
What’s even more fatal is Rome’s fragmented creditor’s rights structure. Unlike large companies that often negotiate debts with several big investors,Behind Roma Shi, there are hundreds of small and medium-sized suppliers, which are huge in number, geographically dispersed, and have complicated legal relationships.Out-of-court reorganization other than bankruptcy reorganization,The biggest fear is this kind of unclear “long-tail debt”. Although the individual amount is not large, everyone is suing and everything is seized.
The deterioration in communication level adds to the problem. According to the supplier,The Romans employees responsible for connecting the supply chain have long been suspended collectively.Everyone wanted to ask for an explanation, but they couldn’t even find a living person, so they had to rely on third-party agencies to barely maintain contact.When trust is completely overdrawn, capital and suppliers choose to vote with their feet at the same time.This so-called “rebirth plan” has naturally become a castle in the air.
二
It is no accident that Romans got to where he is today.
Its founder, Lei Guibin, is actually an extremely experienced serial entrepreneur from Huaqiangbei. As early as 2000, Lei Guibin relied onIt started as a computer accessories company, and later specialized in OEM notebook batteries for Samsung, Lenovo and other giants.Accumulated a profound supply chain foundation.
2012,With the rise of the smartphone wave, Lei Guibin, who sensed business opportunities, made a decisive transformation.Founded the Romans brand and plunged into the blue ocean of mobile power supplies.At that time, the mobile power supply market was a mixed bag, with the average price easily reaching hundreds of yuan.And Lei Guibin directly showed Huaqiangbei’s trump card-the ultimate cost-effectiveness. He led the team to sacrifice“Price Butcher”的大刀，A competing product sold for 128 yuan, but he directly sold it to 99 yuan. When others followed suit and lowered the price, he simply lowered the cost of similar products to the bottom line of 69 yuan.
This set of dimensionality reduction attack tactics instantly penetrated the market defense line. With its extremely low prices and precise online channel layout, Romans has ushered in its shining moment.Annual sales once exceeded 2 billion yuan, ranking first in China’s power bank sales for five consecutive years, and setting a record of being the sales champion in Tmall’s mobile power category for 11 consecutive years.At its peak, annual shipments exceeded 50 million units, and its products were exported to more than 80 countries and regions around the world. In the eyes of many consumers, it is synonymous with cost-effectiveness and big brands.
However, the nature of price war is a double-edged sword. Enterprises have compressed profit margins to the limit. In order to maintain the meager profits on the books, ulterior undercurrents often occur in the supply chain, reducing battery cell costs and relaxing quality control. The extremely low price ultimately undermines the safety bottom line of the product. On platforms such as Black Cat Complaints, the number of complaints about Romans has exploded.“The power bank is seriously bulging”, “sudden power outage” and “heat for no reason” have become high-frequency words.
June 2025,Many universities suddenly issued investigation notices, pointing out that a large-capacity power bank is extremely prone to explosion when charging.It instantly became a hot search topic. Immediately following was a penalty notice from the Shenzhen Municipal Administration for Market Regulation. Due to violations of compulsory certification regulations, false propaganda and other illegal activities, Romans had its illegal gains confiscated and fined, totaling more than 1.24 million yuan.
The national brand that once relied on the myth of low prices to build its reputation has collapsed under the double trial of quality and safety.
三
It’s not that investors don’t want to save you, but they don’t want to pay for your past absurdities.
Now looking back at the rebirth plan at the beginning of this year, we can understand why it has stalled. News in January this year showed that Romans had started negotiations with Jinshajiang Venture Capital and other institutions, and some institutions had expressed investment intentions.However, contacting and expressing investment intentions does not mean that the investment agreement has been signed, nor does it mean that the funds have been received.
At that time, Romans hoped to complete the introduction of funds and reorganization in the first quarter of 2026, re-obtain 3C certification, and restore the sales system. Now in November, it is clear that this timetable has not been fulfilled. The attitude of investors also reveals a very realistic capital logic.You can invest in a company that is going through difficulties, but you are not willing to invest in a financial black hole where even historical debt cannot be determined.
Many people blame Rome’s current predicament entirely on the investors, who are unjust for profit and do not provide assistance at critical moments. But you need to understand an underlying logic,The real money held by VCs is used to bet on the future, not to fill a bottomless pit for a “shell factory”.
The reason why investors are stuckDebt “cleansing”This step is due to Roman Shi’s past.Carrying tens or even hundreds of millions of legal seizures, supplier lawsuits and mountains of defaulted debts. If capital blindly enters the market, the money will be directly transferred away by the court’s enforcement before the money is warm, which is tantamount to giving money directly to creditors.
Because of this, Roman’s wishful thinking of relying on external capital to “recharge” to continue its life has been trapped in an unsolvable death spiral from the beginning.Investors require that debts must be cleared before they are willing to inject capital. However, Romans itself cannot provide real money, so it can only force hundreds of small and medium-sized suppliers to accept extremely harsh “30% off repayments” and long-dated bad checks.This self-help routine of passing on one’s own financial black hole to the entire industry not only completely angered the supply chain, but also allowed the outside world to see clearly its inner background.
Behind this cruel tug of war between capital and debt, the entire power bank industry is facing the most severe regulatory storm in history. Large-scale special rectification and the official implementation of the “Safety Technical Specifications for Mobile Power Sources” have directly raised the industry’s entry threshold to unprecedented heights.Hundreds of small workshops that relied on OEM and shoddy manufacturing were instantly eliminated.The “one product, one code” traceability mechanism and extremely strict hard targets for battery cells and processes,Let the past era of brutal growth by fighting price wars and exploiting security loopholes become history.
On the other hand, Romans, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, hasHundreds of millions of dollars in complex long-tail debt and lingering judicial seizures，另一邊是The 3C certification was revoked due to quality and safety incidents and has not yet been restored.Even left-behind employees can only receive living expenses at 80% of the local minimum wage.
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