China Fashion and Lifestyle Investment News: Athleisure designer brand, EMS fitness, Yoga, IP-related retail and smart electronic cigarette products

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, fashion technology and other related fields.

Fashion Brands

• Athleisure designer brand MAIA ACTIVE (玛娅) raised 40 million yuan in Series A financing

Athleisure designer band MAIA Active announced on July 19th that they raised 40 million yuan in Series A financing at the end of May 2018. The investment was led by Sequoia Capital and Chinese Culture Group, and followed by Huoshanshi Capital and Yuanyue Capital. Previously, MAIA Active raised tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing invested by Arena Capital and Delta Capital in June 2017. The new financing will be mainly used on product R&D and marketing. MAIA Active was established in 2016, featuring designer athleisure products catering for Asian women with design elements and comfortable fabric technology. Currently MAIA Active has 76 SKUs with the average price of 400 yuan and the customer unit price of around 600 yuan. MAIA Active was the runner-up for Luxe.Co InnoBrand Competition in 2017.

Sports & Fitness

Note: EMS refers to electrical muscle stimulation. By simulating the biological electrical signals in the human brain, EMS directs the mid-to-low frequency pulse current to muscle, resulting in strong muscle contraction. Users need to wear professional equipment in EMS fitness training.

• EMS Fitness Operator K-EMS raised tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing

EMS fitness operator K-EMS announced on July 19th that they raise tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing, invested jointly by Fashion Capital, We Capital China, Baiyangzhonglian Medical Investment Institution and the famous Silicon Valley investor Wei Guo. The evaluation after investment reached 300 million yuan. K-EMS equipment is from Korean manufacturers. Previously K-EMS was the agent for the manufacturer. Then both parties work together on R&D to improve software and hardware. The unit cost is around hundreds of thousand yuan. K-EMS has over 200 stores in China, among which 90% are franchising stores. K-EMS was among the top ten contestants in Luxe.Co InnoBrand Competition in 2017.

• EMS fitness brand ZESPEED raised tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing

EMS fitness brand ZeSpeed announced on July 20th that they raised tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing invested by 36 Kr Fund. The financing will be mainly used on product upgrades and marketing. ZeSpeed is an EMS fitness brand under Yipu Sports. In addition to ZeSpeed, Yipu Sports also holds the fitness brand ZPlus and the fitness education institution Yipu School. ZeSpeed has 9 stores in Shanghai currently. The unit class price is 200-400 yuan, targeting customer groups from 30 to 45 years old. ZeSpeed also offers six sets of courses catering for different fitness needs, including speed slimming course for post-natal women, speed hip training course, speed runner course and speed waist slimming course, speed lower-back stretching course and speed course for seniors.

• Yoga brand IN YOGA (隐瑜伽) raised 50 million yuan in Series A financing

Yoga brand in Yoga announced on July 17th that they raised 50 million yuan in Series A financing invested by Dachencaizhi. The financing will be mainly used on developing IT intelligence management system and building fashion yoga studios version 2.0. In Yoga was established in 2015. Currently In Yoga has over 70 directly managed studios in 13 cities including Shanghai, Wuhan, Hangzhou and Changsha. The annual income per store is at 5 million yuan. Main customer groups are amateur female practitioners aged from 25-45 years old. In Yoga sponsored and named the ongoing offline tournament of “Yoga in China” hosted jointly by Hunan TV Jinying documentary and Sina WeiBo.

Household Products

• IP-related offline retail brand ROCK BEAR (超级萌工厂) raised tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing

IP-related offline retail brand Rock Bear announced on July 20th that they raised tens of millions of yuan in Series Pre-A financing. The investment was led by Yuanchuang Capital and followed by Juzhuo Capital. The financing will be mainly used on store expansion. Rock Bear was incubated by IP-related service provider Qiyuhengqing. Qiyuhengqing was established in 2016, covering the whole industrial chain from IP-related product design, production to sales, with nearly one hundred IPs. Currently Rock Bear IP-related products are based on the IP and supply chain of Qiyuhengqing with about 400 SKUs.

Others

• Smart health electronic cigarette brand GIPPRO obtained tens of millions of yuan angel investment

Smart health electronic cigarette brand Gippro announced on July 19th that they obtained tens of millions of yuan angel investment from Cowin Capital, a private equity investment institution. Gippro was established in 2017. After obtaining the food and drug license from Japanese local government, Gippro launched food-standard electronic cigarette products in the Japanese market. The brand entered the Chinese market in 2018 and opened directly managed flagship store in JD. Gippro launched three products catering for different preferences and levels of smokers.

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

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