Why can [even coffee] who run errands get 158 million yuan in B+ round financing?

Professional coffee knowledge exchange more coffee bean information please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

According to titanium media reports, Lian Coffee Coffee Box announced that it had recently completed 158 million yuan of B+ round financing, led by Qiming Venture Capital and followed by Banyan Capital. It is understood that Lian Coffee has previously completed four rounds of financing, including Zhong Ding Investment, Star Venture Capital (initiated by Li Jing, Na Ying, Jiang Wenli, Liang Jing, Dai Jun and others) and Huatze Film and Television. After this round of financing, Zhang Xiaogao, CEO of Lian Coffee, said that Lian Coffee will start a rapid scale expansion in 2018.

The first even coffee is take-out coffee, starting with earning 2 yuan!

Coffee purchasing agent

Lian Coffee is a chain coffee brand, founded in July 2012. It mainly provides coffee express delivery service, and users can place orders by themselves through Wechat official account "Lian Coffee Micro Service". After the payment is completed online, the platform will provide coffee delivery service to users near the coffee workshop nearby. and guarantee delivery within half an hour, the products include caramel latte, vanilla latte, Irish orange latte and so on.

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Background popularity:

Coffee Box, the coffee brand incubated by even coffee, received 50 million yuan in round B financing, led by listed company Huatze Film and Television. It is understood that Coffee Box (Lian Coffee) was established in August 2014, with a founding team of Wang Tao, entrepreneur Zhang Xiaogao and angel investor "company commander"-Wang Jiang (Wang Jiang is the founder of flight housekeeper and angel investor, and has invested in more than a dozen start-ups such as UC browser, Meituan, e-driving, Maibu, etc.)

According to Xinya database, Lian Coffee completed the tens of millions of yuan angel round financing of Zhongding Venture Capital in January 2014, the Pre-A round financing of Star Venture Capital in January 2016, and the 50 million yuan B round financing of Huatze Film and Television in April 2016.

At first, Lian Coffee was only a coffee purchasing agent, distributing products from Starbucks, COSTA, Pacific Coffee and other chain coffee brands to users, but this situation has gradually changed. A distribution fee of 2 yuan is charged for each order. To put it better, it's called coffee takeout platform. Actually, it's just a bunch of errands who deliver coffee.

Even coffee service process

Starbucks'"delivery man" started selling coffee on his own. what business opportunities did he find?

Even Coffee launches its own brand Coffee Box

Not satisfied with the meagre profits of "running errands", players who entered the market with "the last kilometer" service providers began to seek to extend to the upper reaches of the industrial chain. Lian Coffee has opened a chain of coffee shops and may explore a "bottom-up" expansion path.

In 2017, Lian Coffee released more than 30 coffee drinks, including bulletproof coffee, pink coconut water and other popular styles. According to previous media reports, more than 100 "Coffee Station" outlets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen had fully made a profit by the end of 2017, with a daily peak of nearly 400000 cups during the double 12 period.

The two main founders of Lian Coffee are Zhang Xiaogao, a Shanghai entrepreneur who is deeply involved in the traditional supply chain, and Wang Jiang, a well-known serial entrepreneur and angel investor in the Internet industry. In January 2014, Lian Coffee received tens of millions of yuan of angel round financing from Zhong Ding Venture Capital; in January 2016, it completed the Pre-A round financing of Star Venture Capital; in April 2016, it received 50 million yuan in B round financing and Huatze Film and Television Investment.

With the gradual development of China's coffee industry, many local coffee rookies have emerged in China, which exudes great development potential with the help of the new model.

According to the data, the global coffee market grew by only 2% in 2017, while China's coffee consumption grew by as much as 15%. Coffee sales in China were about 70 billion yuan in 2015 and the market is expected to reach 300 billion yuan in 2020. Internet executives continue to join the coffee entrepreneurial camp, and changes are taking place in China's coffee market, which was dominated by brands such as Starbucks and Costa.

According to the China Business Industry Research Institute, there are three trends in terms of coffee brands:

1. Traditional giant brands still dominate traffic.

The traditional chain brands represented by Starbucks and Man Coffee are still ahead of other stores in terms of store traffic.

2. there is a chance of counterattack in fine coffee.

The blue bottle of boutique coffee ranks first in terms of average flow per store, countering the traditional giant Starbucks.

3. Some giant brands are weak.

In terms of brand traffic and average traffic per store, Costa from the UK and McCoffee from McDonald's were unexpectedly at the bottom.

So in the future, niche boutique online coffee with flexible consumption scene may be expected to break through.

After the spin-off of the distribution service, Lian Coffee is now a typical new retail brand. Based on the Wechat official account "Lian Coffee Micro Service", it has built a unique booking and operation system, emphasizing that coffee is based on interpersonal sharing and circulation.

For this investment in Lian Coffee, Gan Jianping, managing partner of QiMing Venture Partners, said, "Lian Coffee is a new retail enterprise with strong Internet genes, which has created a series of new product experiences and operation methods in a short period of time, achieving extremely rapid growth. We believe that even the coffee model will lead the explosive growth of China's coffee industry in the next 5-10 years. "

Han Rui, vice president of Banyan Capital, said: "We believe that while new consumption opens a trillion-level market, it is more important to create brands that bring continuous surprise experiences to consumers." We believe that even the coffee team's deep insight into new consumption and excellent product power have the opportunity to become a long-term competitive brand in the tens of billions of instant drinks market. "