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China's cafe start-up coffee still lacks a mature business model.

Published: 2026-02-04 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/02/04, The cafe is just a platform, a symbol. In yesterday's round table session, whether Su Di, founder of the most influential Chuangcaf Garage Coffee in China, or Li Ruxiong, general manager of local Optics Valley Venture Coffee, expressed surprisingly consistent views on the popularity of starting a business in the form of a coffee shop. The concept of entrepreneurial coffee, as an exotic product, originated in the United States and has many grassroots.

"the cafe is just a platform, a symbol." In yesterday's round table session, whether Su Di, founder of garage coffee, the most influential creator in China, or Li Ruxiong, general manager of local Optics Valley start-up Coffee, expressed astonishingly consistent views on the popularity of starting a business in the form of a coffee shop.

The concept of entrepreneurial coffee, as an imported product, originated in the United States. In order to improve efficiency and save costs, many grassroots entrepreneurs often take a laptop, sit in a coffee shop or garage, negotiate projects, sign contracts and other issues. In fact, in today's China, a lot of business is done in some cafes or teahouses.

The reporter learned that from 2012 to now, nearly 300 start-up coffee have emerged across the country, mainly in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other first-tier cities.

How many start-up coffees can be held in a city? In this regard, Su said: the number is not the number, but the popularity of the gathering is not prosperous. The success of Optics Valley Venture Coffee is due to its gathering of a large group of college student entrepreneurs in Wuhan.

Obviously, the profit of a cup of coffee is almost negligible compared to the services provided. So, how does startup coffee make a profit? Dong Jianqiang, secretary-general of the China Entrepreneurship Coffee Alliance, said that after most of the investment and financing were successful, they had nothing to do with entrepreneurial cafes, and entrepreneurial cafes generally did not have a mature profit model.

At present, Chuangka leading garage coffee is a pure public welfare platform. In Su's words: "the original intention is to establish a start-up, venture capital gathering place, garage coffee itself does not have its own investment fund, profits mainly come from book publishing, advertisers and other derivatives income."

Guanggu Venture Coffee takes the route of investment projects. The first is to appear as a communication platform; the second is the function of a small micro incubator; the third is to do training and hire entrepreneurs as mentors; the fourth is angel investment, which is also its main source of income.