China Fashion and Lifestyle Investment News: Fashion brand incubation platform, and automatic noddle cooking vending machine

Luxe.Co has launched “Luxe.Co China Investment Weekly” since 2016, reporting weekly updates on investment and financing in the China fashion and lifestyle industries. The updates cover fashion, beauty care, food and dining, sports and fitness, hotel and travel, household products, culture and creativity, and other related fields.

Fashion e-Commerce Platform

• Lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu (小红书) raised 300 million US dollars in Series D financing

The lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu announced on June 1st that they raised 300 million US dollars in Series D financing. The investment was led by Alibaba Group and followed by Jinshajiang VC, Tecent Investment, Jiyuan Capital, Yuansheng Capital, Tiantu Capital, Zhen Fund and the individual investor Zhigang Zheng (from K11). The valuation reached 3 billion US dollars after the investment. Previously, Xiaohongshu raised 100 million US dollars in Series C financing in March 2016. The new round of financing will be mainly used on team upgrades and product R&D. Xiaohongshu was established in August 2013. With a business model of “Community + e-Commerce”, Xiaohongshu features the UGC overseas shopping experience sharing community and the cross-border e-commerce “Welfare Club”. With a B2C model, the “Welfare Club” cooperates with overseas brands and large trade dealers, delivering products through direct overseas couriers or tax-free warehouse. As of May 2018, the number of platform users had exceeded 100 million, mainly Gen Z consumers.

• Cross-border e-commerce company Jolly Information (执御信息) raised hundreds of millions of US dollars in Series C financing

The cross-border e-commerce company Jolly Information announced on May 28th that they raised hundreds of millions of US dollars in Series C financing. The investment was led by Sequoia Capital Global Growth Fund and followed by Legend Capital, Orchid Asia, Pingan Venture Capital, CDH Investments and so on. The valuation reached 1 billion US dollars after the investment. Jolly Information was established in December 2012, with the headquartered in Hangzhou. Its main product is the e-commerce platform JollyChic focusing on consumers in the Middle East. The platform has over 35 million accumulated registered users. In 2017, Jolly Information completed the integration of the e-commerce platform MarkaVIP in the Middle East, which became the second e-platform under Jolly Information, in addition to JollyChic.

• Fashion brand incubation platform Shopal raised hundred of millions of yuan in Series B financing

The fashion brand incubation platform Shopal announced on May 31st that they raised hundred of millions of yuan in Series B financing, invested by Cathay Capital and Lianjie Capital. The financing will be mainly used to incubate self-owned brands and to build self-owned channels and membership system. Shopal was established in 2017. With the models of exclusive agency (2-6 years), joint ventures or wholly-owned acquisition, Shopal has four brands including Aveeno, Caudalie and so on. Shopal manages brands’ incubation and sale system in China. Shopal has achieved GMV over 600 million yuan since its inception.

Beauty Care

• Personal care band Nattitude (植观) raised tens of millions of yuan in Series B financing

Featuring the amino acid concept, the personal care brand Nattitude announced on May 30th that they raise tens of millions of yuan in Series B financing. The investment was led by Legend Capital and followed by their previous investors Matrix Partners and Free Capital. Previously Nattitude raised tens of millions of yuan in Series A+ financing in April 2017. The new investment will be mainly used on the continuous expansion of new products categories. Nattitude was launched in September 2015 and entered the personal care field from shampoo products. In March 2016, Nattitude launched its shampoo products featuring the amino acid concept. In September 2017, the amino acid shower gel and facial cleanser were released, occupying a quarter of the total sales of Nattitude currently.

Food and Dining

• Health food brand Ruofan (若饭) raised 10 million yuan angel investment

Featuring convenient meal R&D, Ruofan announced on May 31st that they raised 10 million yuan angel financing invested by Jianji Capital. The financing will be mainly used on market promotion and production. Ruofan was established in 2015 and has launched three products, Edition V1 meal beans, Edition V2 powder products and Edition V3 liquid products, which was released in this May. The price for Ruofan liquid edition is 40 yuan per bottle. A set includes four bottles and two choices of flavors, original and coffee flavor. A bottle of Ruofan liquid can help feel full for more than four hours with 500 calories. Currently Ruofan distributes online through WeChat, Taobao and JD stores. The annual turnover was 20 million yuan in 2017.

• Catering brand incubation platform CHITUOBANG (吃托邦) raised nearly ten million yuan in angel round financing

The catering brand incubation platform CHITUOBANG announced on May 29th that they raised nearly ten million yuan in angel round financing. The investment was led by Daosheng Capital and followed by Qing Venture Capital. The financing will be mainly used on team building and brand upgrades. Established in 2017, CHITUOBANG has incubated three food brands: CIJIA (此加), 51NB and CPLUS. Cijia is a specialty coffee and dessert brand. 51NB is a fashionable Japanese pot food and Izakaya house brand. The overall annual turnover was 5 million yuan in 2017.

• Automatic noodle cooking vending machine LUDOU (卤豆) self-serve mobile noodle house raised tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing

The automatic noodle cooking vending machine LUDOU self-serve mobile noddle house announced on May 29th that they raised tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing. The investors were not disclosed. The financing will be mainly used on product R&D, team building and market development. Users can choose noddles according to their preferred flavor, then the vending machine will complete the whole process from defrosting noodle and ingredients and cooking noddle at 120 degrees to cooling down the noddle to 85 degrees for eating, in 45 seconds. The noddle dish is arranged with a proportion of 200 grams of noddle, 400 grams of soup, 60 grams of meat and 20 grams of vegetables. The unit price ranges from 15 to 25 yuan, varied according to different regions, locations and noddle types.

Hotel & Travel

• Overseas travel B&B brand Ostay raised 10 million yuan in Series Pre-A financing

Featuring Japanese B&B, Ostay announced on May 31st that they raised 10 million yuan in Series Pre-A financing, invested by Innoangel. The financing will be mainly used to further expand overseas markets. Ostay was officially launched in April 2017. Through collecting the data of seasons and locations of Chinese tourists to Japan, Ostay provides to the house-hunting team. Currently Ostay has over 500 rooms in Japan. With two operation models, self-managed or consigned, each room has been renovated with the same standard and been taken photos by the photographer team. Each room is equipped with a butler managing at the back-end. Ostay has a monthly turnover of about 5 million yuan and has ahieved break-even basically.

The above information is based on the company announcement and/or online news. Luxe.Co makes reasonable efforts to obtain reliable content from third parties. Luxe.Co does not guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the views or opinions given by any third-party content provider.

| Chinese reporter: Jiaqi Wang

Marketing and Business Cooperation, please email to contact@hualizhi.com