Soon, Starbucks, which sells coffee, may also start venture capital in China. After the alliance between Starbucks China and Sequoia China in April, a new joint venture company, starra (Shanghai) investment partnership (limited partnership) (hereinafter referred to as starra Shanghai), was established yesterday after Starbucks China and Sequoia China formed an alliance in April. The business scope shows that the business scope includes venture capital and investment management. In response to this, Starbucks said today that it would share any further information in a timely manner.
Carry out strategic investment
This is the first substantive progress since Starbucks and Sequoia announced the strategic cooperation. According to the enterprise investigation, Star Shanghai has two shareholders, of which the shareholder representing Starbucks is “Shanghai Starbucks Coffee Operation Co., Ltd.”. The company was formerly known as Starbucks and the historical joint venture “Shanghai uni president Starbucks Coffee Co., Ltd.” and its 902 branches are located in East China. The shareholder representing Sequoia is Shenzhen Sequoia Antai equity investment partnership (limited partnership). According to industrial and commercial data, the company’s major shareholder is Shenzhen Sequoia Huanyu Investment Consulting Co., Ltd., and the latter’s two shareholders are Zhou Kui and Zhang Lianqing, partners of Sequoia Capital China Fund.
不过，企查查资料并未显示星苒上海的股权结构及公司高管等重要信息。
虽然暂未清楚新的合资企业将如何运营，但可以肯定的是，这家公司未来会关注餐饮及零售领域的投资机会。
在今年4月宣布达成战略合作时，星巴克中国曾表示将联手红杉中国开展战略投资，在新生代餐饮和零售科技方面进行商业合作。
so how do the two sides “look at each other”? For Starbucks China, Sequoia China is like a “bridge”, which can not only provide access to more start-ups, but also help select more potential enterprises. In the briefing at that time, Starbucks China once said: “the cooperation with Sequoia China can help Starbucks better explore new ideas in the retail field in the early stage, create more strategic investment opportunities, and further realize the development of China’s business.”
而对红杉中国而言，星巴克中国庞大的门店网络是一片“理想的实验田”，能帮助其投资项目落地并收集优化建议，最后推动规模增长。
红杉资本全球执行合伙人、红杉资本中国基金创始及执行合伙人沈南鹏在通报中表示：“这次合作能够为我们的成员企业提供一个进行商业化测试，并扩大创新规模的强大平台。”
How do you play?
In fact, this is not the first time Starbucks has played an investor role. Last year, Starbucks announced a $100 million injection to become a cornerstone investor in valor siren ventures (VSV), an American investment fund. In the above announcement, Starbucks president and CEO Kevin Johnson also mentioned VSV.
小食代留意到，和星巴克及红杉的合作一样，VSV也重点关注零售领域的初创公司。
据星巴克去年通报显示，VSV旨在“推动新生代食品及零售初创科技公司增长”，并将寻找和投资研发食品或零售相关技术、产品和解决方案的公司。“随着星巴克寻求借助外部关系加速创新，支持其全球一流的能力，这些垂直领域对公司越来越重要了。”星巴克称。
既然VSV投资和红杉合作有相似之处，我们不妨从VSV的合作模式、投资组合来侧面猜下“星红CP”以后可能会怎么玩。
在合作模式上，小食代介绍过，约翰逊在去年的彭博采访中表示，作为Valor的基石投资者，星巴克能够更直接地触及到所有创新型新公司。
其进一步介绍称，如果星巴克物色到了适合的公司，且该公司的技术和概念可被星巴克采用，那么星巴克便会与这些公司订立商业合作关系，再通过Valor对其投资。
Kevin Johnson, President and CEO of Starbucks
在投资组合上，小食代今天浏览VSV管理方 Valor Equity Partners的官网发现，VSV展示的投资组合名单上已有20家投资企业（截至今年7月），涉猎了食物、媒体服务、客户忠诚度管理、环保包装材料等多个领域。
小食代梳理后发现，按企业数量计算，VSV目前投资最多的为植基食品，其中又以植基乳品居多，包括植基奶和植基黄油。此外，VSV也投资了生产细胞培养肉的“人造肉”企业ARTEMYS FOODS。
VSV称，希望通过三种方式来创造价值，包括打造差异化的投资机会、应用Valor和星巴克的知识资产，以及通过运营协助扩大投资企业的规模和加速增长。
New retail opportunities
Talking about the future cooperation with Sequoia, Starbucks China once said in its notice that it will actively explore digital innovation opportunities at all levels of retail business. This is also a topic that has been emphasized many times in recent years and is regarded as an important pillar to promote growth. In fact, the blessing of digital on the coffee industry is mainly reflected in the expansion of new retail formats. Even coffee is one of the brands that began to explore new retail methods of coffee relatively early. Relying on the previous experience in takeout and customer group resources, Lian coffee launched its own coffee box in 2015, and set up small coffee shops around office buildings and other places, insisting on only taking out. It also introduced the sale form of social e-commerce through online virtual “pocket cafe”. At that time, when coffee chains focused on store experience and rarely provided takeout, even coffee mode promoted the extension of coffee consumption into online channels. Subsequently, Pacific Coffee and Starbucks have also launched takeout services, and Ruixing coffee, which focuses on takeaway and takeaway, has also appeared.
随着品牌们开始探索多元化，咖啡新零售逐渐从外卖扩大至更多与咖啡消费相关的领域。以星巴克中国为例，该公司在布局新零售时就提供了一个多功能线上平台。
小食代介绍过，星巴克中国于2018年底上线了“新零售智慧门店”。对消费者来说，这家线上虚拟门店意味着无论在手淘、支付宝还是星巴克App，均可实现外送、购买卡券、送电子或实体礼品、会员积分等功能。
近期，咖啡新零售的概念甚至脱离门店，自助咖啡机掀起热潮。入局者包括以COSTA为代表的咖啡连锁，以及易咖、小咖等初创企业。
可见，中国咖啡连锁市场在短短几年内就经历了多个阶段的进化，并涌现了更多细分领域及新玩家。在此背景下，像星巴克中国那样，找个“小伙伴”一起玩或许不失为一个好方法。
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