Chinese baking suddenly became so popular because after the epidemic, online traffic became a resource that everyone was competing for, and prices skyrocketed. As a result, investors shifted a large part of their attention to offline consumption scenarios, and bakery shops naturally entered the field of VC vision.

"Products are easy to standardize, opening stores is easy to scale, and the square footage efficiency can be very high." A VC investor in Shenzhen analyzed that this popular logic is very similar to new tea drinks.

"You have to admit that it is a bunch of foodies who have made Internet celebrity stores famous. But what foodies value is whether your products are really delicious, and whether the taste and quality exceed their imagination. That's all." Someone in the industry

People explained it this way.

?However, some investors who focus on consumption said that they couldn’t understand why everyone was investing in baking crazily, even at such a high valuation to get a small share. “I really can’t imagine that at 3-4 o’clock in the afternoon, young people are in the office

The scene of eating mochi and other snacks. "In fact, the last wave of baking craze was 5-6 years ago, and some good brands came out, but now most of them have quietly disappeared.

Details of Master Bao’s new round of financing leaked out. The investment community has learned exclusively that Master Bao launched a new round of financing in the first half of the year. Taking advantage of the popularity of the baking industry, the valuation was once as high as 10 billion yuan.

This time, many first-tier VC funds came to us and chatted for a long time.

?A consumer investor in Shenzhen who has been in contact with Master Bao revealed to the investment community: "I started to look closely at the baking track in 2020. I first talked about Master Bao at the beginning of this year, but the valuation rose very high, and in the end I still couldn't make the move.

"The other party revealed that there were about five VC institutions contacting Master Bao at the same time, and "the enthusiasm was evident."

A well-known PE institution in Shanghai also communicated intensively with Master Bao, but in the end they did not invest because they “could not understand the valuation.”

The valuation of up to 10 billion yuan may refresh the historical record of the Chinese pastry industry.

?Unable to invest in Master Bao, VCs began to turn their attention to other baking brands.

From Changsha to Shanghai, to Suzhou, to Nanjing, there are VC investors looking for baking projects.

A well-known investor said bluntly that after learning about Master Bao’s valuation, he turned around and invested in a baking brand in Changsha.

Since then, bakery brands such as Hutouju and Momo Dim Sum Bureau have started an astonishing financing pace.

Regarding financing, Master Bao founder Bao Caisheng once said that he did not want to take capital money at the beginning, and did not want to risk ruining his brand just to make quick money.

First, Master Bao relies on his own revenue to open the store, so there is no pressure; second, he feels that taking other people's money puts an extra responsibility on his shoulders.

However, in 2017, I still couldn't bear the persistence of Tiantu Investment. After repeated discussions with the other party several times, I finally accepted financing. Later, in December 2020, I accepted another round of investment from Kunlun Capital.