After Heytea, another top-tier Chinese tea brand Nayuki followed suit with a move into private equity investment by launching its VC/PE subsidiary
Nayuki (Chinese: 奈雪的茶), China’s leading bubble and fruit tea brand, confirmed recently that it had set up a venture capital entity.
Shenzhen Meihao Own Power Investment Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 美好自有力量投资有限公司) was established with a registered capital of CNY 10 million and is 100% owned by Shenzhen Pindao Catering Management Co. Ltd.
The new firm’s executive director and general manager is Peng Xin, the founder of Nayuki.
Nayuki is not alone in its foray into equity financing. In July 2021, after completing a USD 500 million Series D financing backed by Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Tencent Investment, Temasek and other topnotch investor, Heytea, another head tea brand, invested in five beverage-related businesses within four months.
In addition, other domestic tea brands such as MXBC (Chinese: 蜜雪冰城) and Modern China Tea Shop (Chinese: 茶颜悦色) also set sights on venture capital investment last year.
In July 2021, Modern China Tea Shop, headquartered in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, founded a same-city fresh fruit tea brand Guo Ya Ya (Chinese: 果呀呀), holding a 5.9% stake.
In October 2021, MXBC invested in Guangdong's local tea drink brand, Hui Tea (Chinese: 汇茶), as the second-largest shareholder with 19% of the company’s equity.
Consumer brands from the catering industry have been jostling against each other to enter the venture capital scene. Besides the tea brands in question, top-tier snack brands Qiaqia Food (Chinese: 洽洽食品) and Juewei Food (Chinese: 绝味食品) have joined forces to invest CNY 1.1 billion in the food and beverage industry.