industry cooling off period is the best growth period for good projects.
With the superposition of all kinds of bad news, the once popular new consumption has stepped on the brakes several times.
Over the past year, the new consumer industry has continued to spread the news that “investors have not invested in a project for half a year”, “layoffs and contraction of star projects” and even the project “took the initiative to reduce the valuation”. The whole track seems to be “not very good”. In terms of financing amount and quantity, the new consumption track is indeed not as good as before.
However, if we focus on specific sub circuits, this general “not very good” impression is not tenable. Star projects are still financing, and many start-ups are still attracting capital attention.
The foam is clearing. Environmental turbulence has screened out a number of start-up brands with weak risk resistance, and investors are also more concerned about the sustainability of business models. Focusing on investment and financing, “zhentan” combed the nine major trends of investment and financing in the first half of 2022 of the new consumption track to see who survived the iteration and what new signals deserve attention.
How to capture the hearts of young people?
Fashion, sports, outdoor
What do young people like? In the first half of 2022, VCs bet on fashion clothing, sports and outdoor.
Fashion clothing accessories track has the most financing. Among them, beaster, a street clothing brand, has received hundreds of millions of yuan of b-round financing. The brand’s clothing style emphasizes “gender ambiguity”, “self”, “weird interest” and so on. In addition, the financing also includes top favor, a trendy children’s wear brand, kataworld, abyb charging, a trendy accessories brand, and myomy, a trendy glasses brand.
Sports apparel start-up brands also received frequent investments in the first half of the year, including Guande technology, a female functional sportswear enterprise, OMG sports, a fitness apparel brand, and Jiaoma, a light sports lifestyle brand.
Led by listed brands such as Li Ning and Anta, more sportswear and accessories brands also increasingly emphasize “trend”. For example, Xueniao technology, a ski brand invested by xiaohongshu this year, emphasizes Guochao, and moodlab, another sportswear brand invested by xiaohongshu, emphasizes building sportswear with both trend attributes and functionality; The brand core emphasized by sports shoes and clothing brand eqlz is the underground culture grass-roots spirit and punk concept.
Young people are becoming more and more personalized. The “trend” element can meet their inner needs, so trendy play, trendy shoes, trendy sports, etc. have a considerable market.
This year, camping exploded, and investors saw the potential market of the camping industry. In the first half of the year, three outdoor related enterprises were invested, including camping brand hi King wild luxury camp, outdoor lifestyle brand ABC campingcountry, and outdoor equipment brand Nuoke naturehike.
Young people are fickle. How to find “long-term dividends” from their short-term and volatile interests is the biggest problem in this field.
Coffee and tea, evergreen track
Even though the investment and financing of new consumption this year is not as hot as in previous years, coffee and tea projects are still popular.
In the first half of the year, not only well-known projects such as seesaw coffee, shuyishaoxiancao, Arabica coffee and Ningji were financed, but also start-up coffee brands such as xiaoyangqiao, bafu and felicity origin, as well as new tea brands such as jasmine milky white, xiaoxiantu and Zhizhi tea were also recognized by capital. T comma, a fresh fruit tea brand established less than a year ago, has raised two rounds of financing, amounting to 100million yuan and 50million euros respectively.
Relatively mature new consumption tea brands are still expanding their territory through investment. According to it orange, the book also burned fairy grass. In the first half of the year, it invested in doc coffee, like tea invested in minority coffee, and new tea investment into the coffee track has become a new trend in the industry.
In addition, smart coffee machine brands such as “coffee wings” also received a fixed increase of 100million yuan on the new third board in the first half of the year. At the same time, more and more brands are emphasizing “conforming to Chinese taste”, and two northwest flavor milk tea brands “Fangha” and “Xilin girl” have obtained financing. There are also new tea brands with innovative management methods, which operate with “membership system”, or emphasize “no takeout for ready-made tea”.
The large market scale and great penetration potential are the “evergreen” reasons for coffee and tea. Related segment track brands are also emerging. Taking “pure tea” as an example, three pure tea brands, including Yinian caozhong, oncha began to drink tea, and capsule tea language, all received financing in the first half of the year.
As a traditional industry in China, tea has a broad market, but it is troubled by “having categories but no brands”. Now, the new generation of entrepreneurs are trying to change the “traditional” dilemma of the tea industry, and do market education for young people through the rejuvenation of tea. For example, capsule tea language is for women, emphasizing the “homology of makeup and food” of products; Yi Nian Cao Mu Zhong and oncha have developed a set of tea classification and ranking that meet the preferences of young people, hoping to get closer to young people.
Tipsy never goes out of style
According to the data of it orange and other platforms, there were more than 10 alcohol investment and financing events in the first half of the year, involving mainly refined beer, sparkling wine and Baijiu.
Among them, sparkling wine mainly faces the C-end through online + offline retail, including hard soda sparkling wine brand Zeya, “low calorie sparkling wine” is greater than or equal to 9, 0 sucrose low alcohol fruit wine “initial gas”. In terms of Baijiu, Qingpu Lanjing mainly develops low-cost Baijiu for b-end and Sishi.
Refined beer brands pay more attention to “space” and “social”. For example, vanbeer fine brewing not only laid out online and offline channels, but also laid out offline “fine brewing Experimental Bureau” bistros and smart retail machines for fine brewing beer; Steam bear brewing is expanding its own community stores; Jingdu fresh wine also emphasizes the combination of new retail + community scenes; Seventeen doors, which focuses on Chongqing characteristics, is also a combination of online shopping malls and offline experience stores.
The business format of Ruien fine brewing is more special. At the C end, it focuses on “29 minute flash delivery of fresh and fine brewing”, and at the B end, it realizes expansion through the partner mode. According to 36kr, it has successively cooperated with 300 + venues in Shenzhen, which are mainly catering businesses. The brand will provide partners with a complete set of wine making equipment and build a “mini fine brewing hall”.
Sparkling wine is a “new species” in the wine industry in recent years, emphasizing low alcohol and fruit flavor, so its audience is more young people. However, the R & D threshold of sparkling wine is very low, and the products are easy to replicate, so the homogenization of products in the market is very serious.
In the secondary market, Baijiu is one of the industries most recognized by investors. In the primary market, “new” Baijiu is also very recognized by capital. The representative brands of “new” Baijiu include jiangxiaobai. Now more and more brands are also emerging, which are younger, cheaper and more yuan in product form, trying to change the cognition that “young people don’t drink Baijiu”.
From full to good
When the problem of food and clothing is solved, the dietary needs of the public will turn to “health”, which is an opportunity recognized by the industry.
The focus of capital on “healthy diet” is diverse. The most concerned subdivision is the plant base. In January, the plant protein food brand received a round B financing of US $100million on on Monday, and the brand has raised five rounds in less than three years. The plant-based start-up brands that obtained financing in the first half of the year also include Haozhi health and haofood. Haozhi health is a manufacturer of high-end plant new protein food, while haofood mainly develops plant-based chicken.
Under the “plant-based” boom, “vegetable milk” is also a tuyere. In the first half of the year, the new dairy strategy invested in the oat milk brand Yimai, and apricot, a plant almond milk brand, also received financing.
Some invested brands emphasize “functionality” to achieve health goals, such as functional beverage brand “yuanzhuo”, whose core products include blueberry anthocyanin juice with eye care function; Hydrogen Xiaoqi is a drinking water brand focusing on the active hydrogen function of supplementing hydrogen and resisting oxygen for the body; In the first half of the year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences invested in repairing the yuan and strengthening the health, focusing on Pueraria and Hovenia dulcis antidote drinks.
In addition, Valet brands have a broad market and are also favored by capital, such as easy rule, seven years and five seasons, super food plan, muscle little prince, number one meal, etc.
VCs are also eyeing the children’s health food track. In January, woxiaoya, a brand of children’s nutrition and complementary food, won the b+ round of investment from Qiming venture capital; Children’s health fresh food brand weixianliangpin received Angel round investment from Fengrui capital. Yiya yummykids, another brand invested by angel round, mainly provides three meals a day solutions for children aged 3-12.
“Health” is certainly a real demand, but whether the relevant projects will develop smoothly, at present, it seems that the prospect is still very vague.
Take the “plant-based” brand as an example. Looking at the world, the performance of plant-based star companies such as oatly and beyond meat is not good-looking. The doubts of the secondary market on the business model of plant-based products are also directly reflected in the sharply falling share price. This is not only due to the poor profitability of plant-based brands, but also the high price but unpleasant plant meat is difficult to win the favor of consumers; For vegetable milk, as new and old brands have entered the market, this track has been competitive.
Beauty and skin care, capital sees “efficacy”
Compared with previous years, this year’s beauty and skin care track is a little “cold”. This “cold” is not only reflected in the reduction of investment and financing in beauty and skin care in the primary market, but also in the performance of 618 this year. According to the market intelligence of magic mirror and other data, the sales volume and ranking of domestic cosmetics brands at the time of pre-sale are lower than those in previous years.
However, because two domestic efficacy skin care brands, Winona under Bethany and runbaiyan under Huaxi biology, have received good repercussions in the market, the investment and financing of efficacy skin care is very hot. It orange data also shows that the functional facial mask brand C coffee has less than three rounds of financing in a year.
Among other beauty and skin care start-ups invested, Dr. Qingyan emphasized “bioactive peptides”, and the products focused on oral health and external skin care; Kirschliff cuts into the middle and high-end anti hair loss field, emphasizing the core technology “hair growth peptide”; Heproa Haipu Nuo takes “micro ecological scientific research and skin care” as the core concept; Suhua is positioned as a brand of synthetic biotechnology. Ruoyuchen, a listed company operated on behalf of e-commerce, invested in youngmay, a medical beauty technology skin care brand.
In addition, men’s skin care / beauty makeup, herbal skin care is also the preferred direction of capital in the first half of the year.
The increasingly stringent regulation of the beauty and skin care industry has brought great challenges to industry participants. From January 1, 2022, the “norms for the evaluation of the efficacy declaration of cosmetics” has been implemented. The norms require the registrants and filers of cosmetics to apply for the registration of special cosmetics or the registration of ordinary cosmetics, they should conduct efficacy evaluation, and upload the summary of the basis for the efficacy declaration of products on the special website designated by the State Food and drug administration. To do this, beauty enterprises will certainly pay more costs and have a longer process of promoting new products.
This will also increase the gap between beauty and skin care enterprises – mature enterprises are easier to stand out; Small and medium-sized enterprises face more challenges.
The pet track is still hot
Pet economy has always been popular. According to it orange, there have been 10 + financing events in the pet track in the past six months, and there are many projects with financing of more than 100 million yuan. For example, the fashion pet lifestyle brand vetreska received tens of millions of dollars of b+ round financing, and the pet food products brand Shuaike pet received 500 million yuan of pre IPO Financing.
In addition, in the first half of the year, the pet industry financing involved a wide range of categories, from pet food, to pet supplies, from pet cleaning, medical treatment, to pet insurance, almost covering the needs of pet owners.
So far this year, there are two pet companies about to IPO, and fourorfive pet companies have been listed in the secondary market.
The core problem of the domestic pet industry is the large scale of pet OEM, but few “brands” have really been recognized by the market. Several pet enterprises listed on A-share market are facing such problems. With the rise of new consumer pet brands that pay more attention to brand building, the current situation of “category, no brand” in the industry is being improved.
Another problem in the pet industry is that it is not mature enough and has a lot of chaos. Especially in the pet food track, “domestic brands are difficult to replace imported cat food” is still the view of many pet owners on this industry. It will take time for new pet consumption brands to really mature.
The prefabricated dishes are still at the air outlet
In 2022, prefabricated vegetables are still hot. According to it orange, there were five financing cases in the field of prefabricated vegetables and instant foods in the first half of the year, including Zhenwei xiaomeiyuan, liantongue workshop, wuman fresh food, Yinshi and other projects.
The most concerned is tongue tip technology, a new entrepreneurial project of Lu Zhengyao, which won a financing of 1.05 billion yuan in March this year, and a total of 1.6 billion yuan in about half a year.
Among several prefabricated vegetable projects, franchise chain stores are an important business form. According to the official disclosure of tongue tip technology, 6000 stores have been signed in the three months since December last year. It is reported that liantongue workshop is expected to open 1000 stores this year, and Yinshi, which is mainly oriented to county and township markets, is expected to open 600 stores in 2022; According to the official website of Zhenwei xiaomeiyuan, more than 100 offline stores are expected this year, and many online and offline channels have been settled.
Wuman fresh does not open offline franchises, but sells its products through online and offline channels. Among them, offline stores mainly include HEMA fresh, while online channels mainly include Ding Dong shopping, pupu supermarket, etc.
At present, the biggest problem in the field of prefabricated vegetables is “there is no national standard”, so the hidden danger of food safety has attracted much attention. In this case, enterprises with relatively strong supply chain and R & D capabilities are more likely to ensure the quality of prefabricated vegetables during transportation and preservation.
At the same time, there are not only new consumer brands entering the prefabricated vegetable track, but also e-commerce platforms such as meituan and HEMA, catering enterprises such as Haidilao, and various listed food processing companies. It is difficult for new consumer brands to break through.
Source: Official Website of tongue tip technology
“Cost performance” consumption is popular
Today, the purchasing power of the consumer market has increased greatly, but consumers are also becoming more and more “smart”, and the province should spend more and more. Therefore, discount stores, second-hand trading platforms and other formats have also become the focus of VC this year.
In the first half of the year, discount stores, including Xiaoxiang life, autoe, hi Tesco, and snack magic magic, were financed. Xiaoxiang life specializes in daily grocery discount stores, autoe specializes in hard discounts of “big brand one fold”, and snack magic and hi Tesco mainly make snacks. Among them, ortele and hi tegou have received the most attention from capital, and have raised three rounds in less than a year.
Discount stores do not necessarily sell “temporary goods”. The discount format is more to improve the supply chain and inventory turnover capacity, reduce costs, and improve business efficiency through the refined operation of stores. These discount stores that have received investment also emphasize the importance of “supply chain”.
In addition, the second-hand platforms that obtained financing in the first half of the year include panghu luxury, panda Ershi, watch identification and idle trading platform “Zhongbiao”, and idle supplies trading platform “palm one shot”. The second-hand trading industry has broad demand in the market. In particular, there have been a number of financing brands in ershe track. However, at present, the Ershi platform has not completely “broken the circle”, and few high-profile platforms appear in the domestic market.
Ask for value from thicker places
When new consumption changed from hot to calm, investors began to turn their attention to the supply chain behind the brand, trying to tap value from the thicker and more “difficult” back-end.
In the first half of the year, enterprises related to the supply chain frequently received investment, such as Bawei, a beauty agency; Plant meat suppliers are looking forward to planting; There are four supply chain enterprises invested in the clothing industry, including SaaS Lingmao SCM in the clothing supply chain, clothing in China and Taiwan, youbu, a digital printing clothing supply chain service provider, and Zhiyi technology, an AI based clothing flexible supply chain solution provider. Among them, Zhiyi technology was reported to have completed three consecutive rounds of nearly US $100million financing in April this year.
In addition, investors also pay close attention to enterprises with a supply chain background. For example, muscle little prince is the only chicken breast brand with a self-supporting supply chain in China, and the technology footwear brand miracle miles focuses on the digitalization of the supply chain.
Xiaoxiang life will provide supply chain services for the b-end, while Guande technology is a sports brand with R & D and supply chain capabilities.
The brand has a stable supply chain, and its ability to resist risks and autonomy will be stronger. Strong supply chain enterprises may also extend to the upstream of the value chain – beauty brands will hand over R & D and production to mature beauty OEM; Shenzhou International, the OEM behind Adidas, UNIQLO and puma, has patented technology and supply chain capabilities, so it can “surround” big brands and have a market value of 100 billion.
From overheating to calmness, new consumption seems to fade out of focus. However, consumption is always changing and there is always demand, and a group of brand people and consumption practitioners still stick to it. For those projects that have a feasible business model, truly create value and are at the forefront of the market, the current is the best growth period.
Author: Li Xindi; Source: alphaseeker (id:deep_insights), reprint authorized. Reprint authorization and media business cooperation: Amy (wechat: 13701559246);
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