Luxe.CO China Investment Weekly March 28 to April 03, 2020

Since 2016, Luxe.CO has regularly released "Luxe China Investment Weekly", a compilation of investment and financing news across the fashion and lifestyle industries in China. It includes fashion brands, fashion e-commerce, beauty & skincare, food & beverage, health and fitness, hospitality & travel, home decor & toys, culture & entertainment, fashion technology and more.

The 2020 12th issue of "Luxe China Investment Weekly" includes seven domestic finance and investment news stories from March 28 to April 3, 2020.

Fashion E-commerce

1) E-commerce SaaS Platform Mockuai Receives Hundreds Of Millions Of Yuan In Series C Funding

On April 3, Mockuai announced its successful raising of hundreds of millions of yuan in Series C financing, led by Zhongyuan Capital, followed by Gaorong Capital. Previously, the company had received strategic investments from Kuaishou, Vipshop, and Tencent.

Founded in 2015, Mockuai positions itself as an e-commerce Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider for large retail customers. In 2018, it entered the Kuaishou platform, provided a SaaS system for live-streaming e-commerce transactions, and began to lay out supply chain services.

At present, there are hundreds of thousands of SKUs under Mockuai including food, beauty & makeup and lifestyle. Merchants need to first send samples to the company to be screened by the team before being put on the shelf. KOLs on the Kuaishou platform can add these products to their own live-streaming room. Currently, more than a million influencers have registered on Mockuai.

2) The Live-Streaming Fashion E-commerce Platform Goumei Receives Nearly 100 Million Yuan In Series A

On March 30, Goumei announced the completion of Series A financing of nearly 100 million yuan, led by Meridian Capital, Bridge One, and followed by Shanghai Yaoji Technology. The funds will mainly be used for backend development, supply chain and investment in the labor marketplace.

In 2016, Goumei entered Taobao live and incubated live-streaming influencers -- currently, there are more than 200 influencers under it. In 2019, Goumei took over the live-streaming demand of brands and provided services for more than 30 women’s wear brands. Goumei also directly works with factories, who  send samples to Goumei. Products are selected by Goumei and recommended by its live-streaming influencers. To date, it has cooperated with more than 200 factories.

3)  The Social E-commerce Platform Fenxiang Completes A New Round Of Investment Worth 10 Million Yuan.

At the end of 2019, Fenxiang announced a new round of investment worth 10 million yuan,led by GSR Ventures and followed by Star VC. This was Fenxiang's third consecutive round of funding in 2019.

The Fenxiang mini program was officially launched in November 2018, mainly adopting the B2K2C mode. Here, B refers to the merchants on JD.com and the Fenxiang platform; K refers to the KOC (Key Opinion Consumers), and C represents consumers. K can invite C to become  group members, and also get a commission after recommending products to the group. Each product will be clearly marked "promotion commission". While C can also be upgraded to K, the standard is to create a WeChat group of more than 50 people or invite 30 fans. At present, the total number of Fenxiang communities has reached 90,000, with GMV exceeding more than 600 million yuan.

Beauty & Skincare

4)  Beauty Brand Perfect Diary Receives A New Round Of Investment Worth  US$100 Million

On April 1, Perfect Diary announced that it had secured a new round of financing of US$100 million, led by Tiger Global Management, and followed by HOPU Investment Management Company and Boyu Capital. The post-investment valuation reached US$2 billion, double its valuation from September 2019.

Perfect Diary achieved rapid growth by cooperating with KOLs on Little Red Book and creating in-demand styles. On Singles Day 2019, Perfect Diary reached the top place in the Tmall cosmetics sales list. In January and February of 2020, Perfect Diary’s sales increased by 250% year-on-year.

Food & Beverage

5) High-end Baijiu Brand Jiàn gè miàn Obtains Seed Round Investment

On April 1, baijiu brand Jiàn gè miàn announced that it had received seed round investment from an individual investor, Wang Cen. The specific amount was not disclosed. The financing will be used mainly for brand marketing and distribution development. The main product is small bottles of baijiu -- the price of each bottle is more than 100 yuan, and is aimed at consumers who pursue quality and health. So far, version 1.0 has been launched.

Home Decor & Toys

6) Narwal Robotics, A business Focusing On Design, Development, And Production Of Intelligent Cleaning Robots, Receives Nearly 100 Million Yuan In Round B Funding

On April 2, Narwal Robotic announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan in  Series B financing, led by Source Code Capital, ByteDance, and followed by long-standing shareholders Infore Capital, Dami Ventures and others.. It received Series A investment worth tens of millions of yuan in April 2019.

Established in 2016, the Guangdong province-based Narwal develops cleaning robots that can wash floors, and then rinse and dry mops automatically. Each unit costs around US$600.

7) Smart Lighting Brand Yeelight Receives A Strategic Investment

On April 2, Yeelight announced a strategic investment from Yunfeng Capital. Yeelight was founded in 2012 and incubated by the SOSventures incubator in the United States. In 2014, Yeelight joined the Xiaomi ecosystem, with its products including ceiling light series, table lamp series, basic lighting, and ambient lighting. Users can control the color and brightness of the light bulb through their smartphone, and customize functions such as the on/off switch delay.