On February 7, the reporter of "daily economic news" inquired about qixinbao and found that on January 27, the main operation company of Lanzhou beef noodle brand majiyong, Shanghai Huaqiao Catering Management Co., Ltd., underwent industrial and commercial changes, and the shareholders added Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd.
Ma Jiyong is another pasta brand invested by Tencent after Hefu fishing for noodles, which is behind the investment boom of pasta track. According to incomplete statistics of the reporter, there were at least eight pasta financing events in 2021, and the total amount disclosed exceeded 1.3 billion yuan. In July last year, Hefu Laomian used 800 million yuan of e-round financing, setting the highest financing record of China's chain noodle restaurant industry in 2021.
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu danpeng said in an interview with reporters: "pasta is China's traditional mainstream catering category, but there is relatively large room for innovation and upgrading and iteration. The integrity of the supply chain, the stability of quality, the guarantee of food safety, the improvement of brand tone and other aspects are all testing the core ability of the sustainable development of emerging brands."
Tencent capital is interested in catering business
According to qixinbao, Shanghai Huaqiao Catering Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huaqiao catering) was established in July 2019 and its legal representative is Hong Lei. On January 27 this year, the investor of Huaqiao catering changed and the new shareholder Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd. was added. Ma Huateng is the shareholder of Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd.
After the equity change, the registered capital of Huaqiao catering increased from 1413800 yuan to 1604400 yuan. Huaqiao catering operates a cutting-edge Lanzhou beef noodle brand, Ma Jiyong. The reporter of the daily economic news inquired about the third-party review app and found that at present, Ma Jiyong's restaurants are mainly concentrated in its headquarters in Shanghai, with more than 80 stores in Shanghai and 8 in Beijing and 12 in Shenzhen in other first tier cities. They have not yet settled in Guangzhou.
Previously, Huaqiao catering has carried out many rounds of financing. According to qixinbao, it obtained the angel round financing of Challenger capital in July 2019, pre-A round financing of Xianfeng evergreen, Kaihui fund and Gaorong capital in January 2021, and a round financing of Challenger capital and Xianfeng Qiyun in June 2021. The amount of the three rounds of financing was not disclosed.
In the public's impression, Tencent's investment preference in the past mainly focused on the Internet and science and technology. In fact, Tencent has focused on the offline catering field in recent years. In the field of pasta, before investing in Ma Jiyong, Tencent has successively participated in two rounds of investment in Hefu Laomian in 2020 and 2021; In the field of coffee and tea, Tencent has participated in Xi tea, TIMS China and algebraist algebras; In addition, Tencent also took a stake in shengxiangting, a "wanghong" hot brine brand.
Pasta is hot
China has a long history of making and eating pasta. All kinds of noodle shops can be found everywhere in the streets, but most of them are self-employed, with scattered market, low degree of branding and chain, lack of innovation, single taste and low customer unit price. With the rise of the new Chinese noodle restaurant in recent years, consumers' views on the restaurant have changed, and the pasta industry is gradually developing to the middle and high end.
AI media consulting's "2021 new Chinese noodle restaurant industry trend and consumer behavior insight report" shows that 26.8% of Chinese consumers eat noodles every day, 42.1% of Chinese consumers eat noodles once every 2-3 days, and generally like a variety of noodles. Under the influence of emotional demands and living habits, noodle restaurant consumption has a stable consumer group.
According to the above report, at the beginning of 2021, the total number of Chinese noodle restaurants in China was about 1.1 million, most of which were fast food. Compared with the prices of other Chinese foods, the overall consumer price was low, and the price fluctuated significantly with the location and region. In 2021, the revenue scale of China's Chinese noodle market will reach 312.09 billion yuan. It is expected that the revenue scale will exceed 430 billion yuan in 2024. Driven by consumption upgrading and product diversification, the industry shows a momentum of rapid development.
According to the incomplete statistics of the reporter of the daily economic news, there were at least eight pasta brand financing in 2021, with a total amount of more than 1.3 billion yuan disclosed. The brands involved include meet Xiaomian, Chen Xianggui Lanzhou beef noodles, Wuye noodles, Hefu fishing noodles, etc., many of which received multiple rounds of financing in a year. The e-round financing of Hefu Laomian with 800 million yuan set the highest financing record of China's chain noodle restaurant industry in 2021.
As an old category, pasta has jiumaojiu, xibeixiao noodle village and other old players. How did the later "new species" break the game? Zhu danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, said in an interview with reporters: "Pasta is a traditional mainstream catering category in China, but there is a large space for innovation, upgrading and iteration. Therefore, the differentiation of cutting-edge brands in terms of ingredients and brands has development opportunities. In addition, the new generation prefers pasta and flour. All racetracks with high consumption frequency of the new generation will become the focus of capital. Snail powder has been popular in recent years The explosion also confirms this. "
The reporter noted that at present, the emerging brands of Chinese pasta have played new tricks in marketing, taste and space design. For example, Hefu Laomian proposed to highlight the Chinese style of "health preserving noodles in the study" with Chinese scholarly elements, while Chen Xianggui and Ma Jiyong subverted the street store image of the traditional Lanzhou Ramen store with bright and clean decoration.
However, in recent years, catering brands have become "online Red stores" with the help of marketing, but there are not a few short-lived. How can emerging brands develop sustainably? Zhu danpeng believes that the brand should improve six core competencies: the first is the integrity of the supply chain, the second is the stability of quality, the third is the guarantee of food safety, the fourth is the improvement of brand tone, the fifth is the improvement of service system, and the sixth is the enhancement of customer stickiness.
