Wen's happiness

Source: Wen's investment in Zhongwang Dongsishitiao Capital

This is a financing officially announced in May. According to an industry insider, this financing was finalized at the end of last year. Up to now, it is mainly because this time node is more interesting.

on the one hand, there is a news that has spread in the VC circle-the consumer investment fever has begun to cool down. On the other hand, offline physical retail stores are welcoming a wave of recovery with the encouragement of policies.

If it weren't for a financing conference hosted by Snacks in May, it is estimated that most people have never heard of this company; In fact, many people in the industry are not familiar with this name until now.

Snacks are very busy. The first round of financing is 24 million yuan, led by Sequoia China and Gaorong Capital, followed by Qicheng Capital and Mingyue Capital. In some media reports, this round of valuation also exceeded 2 billion yuan. To sum up in one sentence, a seemingly unremarkable snack shop has been taken by mainstream investment institutions.

why?

first, briefly introduce this company. As founder Yan Zhou said, "No brand can be born naturally", Snacks is very busy. It has been a company established five years ago. Its first store is located in Changsha-yes, it is Changsha again. Up to now, the number of stores has exceeded 45.

45 is not a small number. According to public information, all of them should be seated in Hunan Province. However, according to the latest data of Tianyancha, snacks are very busy. In July, it registered a branch in Nanchang, Jiangxi, which obviously indicates that the company intends to start from Jiangxi and realize the plan of expanding the country.

so why is it invested in a large amount by first-line funds?

If we want to infer, it is worth discussing: from the busy snacks, we can vaguely see the shadow of Pinduoduo.

Unlike many snack brands that focus on high-end, snacks are busy and focus on low prices, targeting "7% of ordinary consumers". Snacks are very busy, and they were born in Changsha, a second-and third-tier city. The cost performance ratio is a shortcut to break through the tight encirclement in today's fierce snack battlefield.

Looking back at Pinduoduo in those days, its "chopping a knife" has often been swiped in the circle of friends. Think again about the snack shop where everyone can realize the freedom of snacks in this year's Honey Snow Ice City. It seems that the imagination space is much bigger.

actually, the franchise mode with busy snacks has a good record. According to official data, more than 2% of the shopkeepers opened two stores in busy snacks, and more than 4% opened three or more stores. It is rumored that they have all achieved profitability. The company has 15 warehouses with a storage area of 43, square meters, and has a leading intelligent sorting system in Hunan Province, with more than 1,4 kinds of snacks on sale.

In a media interview, Yan Zhou said that the number of stores with busy snacks is expected to exceed 7 this year. Such a rapid expansion of the pace, side evidence of this round of higher demand for financing.

as mentioned at the beginning of the article, the investment craze of consumer track is gradually cooling down, and this news is not groundless. In addition to this news, there are two hidden lines: 1) the valuation system will return to rationality; 2) There may be more underwater projects such as busy snacks.

For a retail store, the first round of financing is as high as 24 million yuan, which ranks among the most famous star projects in Changsha. But interestingly, China Investment Network learned that this enterprise is not well known by VC, and even many of them have never heard of it, which shows that the project is still "submerged".

to some extent, this is due to the cautious financing of the project itself. A friend of FA revealed that when they were busy trying to get in touch with snacks, they were explicitly rejected.

But there is another reason that can't be ruled out, which is the importance of "good projects sinking underwater" at this time node. An investor's analysis of the investment network, for various reasons, whether for investors or good projects, exposure is not necessarily a matter of more advantages than disadvantages.

at the beginning of the article, another seemingly opposite news is mentioned, that is, offline physical retail stores are experiencing a wave of recovery. Judging from the continuous introduction of relevant policies, this is indeed the case.

in July, 221, the Ministry of commerce and other 11 departments jointly issued the "guide to the construction of a convenient living circle in a quarter of an hour", which indicated that entities should be encouraged to develop community commerce beyond enterprises.

Similar policies have been issued in various cities. For example, in August, Beijing launched the Supplementary Notice on the Guidelines for the Application of the First Store Project to Encourage the Development of Commercial Brands in 221 to encourage major brands to open offline stores. Similarly, Fujian Province also launched the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Brand Chain Convenience Stores in Our Province" in the same month to provide all-round services for convenience store development.

These are undoubtedly beneficial to physical retail stores. As stated by the above-mentioned investors on China Investment Network, policy is a guiding direction for investment in China. China Investment Network also believes that this is also an important background reason why chain stores such as snacks are very busy and are bet by capital.

But behind the seemingly opposite news of cooling investment and favorable policies, it seems that all roads lead to the same goal.

under the appearance of "VC escaping from the consumption circle", it may be a sign that VC is more rational in investing in consumption projects, and the probability of "chasing investment" will be reduced, and it will be more cautious about some "hot spots".

In the discussion of different topics, more than one consumer investor invariably mentioned a point: for brands that only do online single channel, the investment ratio will drop significantly; However, for offline physical chain brands, investment is still hot–similar to the policy, it also points to physical retail.

VC didn't run away, and won't run away. They may just be less anxious.