Startups selling Chinese vegetables can be valued at up to $ 12 billion

Meicai, a startup connecting vegetable farmers to restaurants and households, is aiming to mobilize US $ 500 million in the latest round of capital calls, thus valuing the company about US $ 10-12 billion, Bloomberg leads the source. close said.

Meicai, which means “delicious vegetables” in Chinese, has raised about $ 800 million in 2018, bringing the company’s valuation to $ 7 billion. This is one of many startups that deliver food that has attracted a lot of investment in China, targeting a market where e-commerce has not yet been fully exploited.

Finding fresh food and connecting with customers is becoming an increasingly hot competition between startups like Meicai and Meituan. Food delivery company Beijing Missfresh Ecommerce Co. It is also planning to mobilize about 300-500 million USD at 3 billion USD valuation, according to Bloomberg.

Based in Beijing, Meicai has received investment capital from Tiger Global Management, Hillhouse Capital, GGV Capital, Genesis Capital and China Media Capital. The company is also said to be among a group of investors considering taking over a Chinese branch of German food wholesale company Metro AG.

Meicai was founded in 2014 by Liu Chuanjun with the goal of finding fresh food sources for about 10 million small and medium sized restaurants in China. Through Meicai application, customers can order directly specialties such as Bok Choy cabbage and Sichuan pepper from farms, bypassing the traditional intermediaries. As of the end of 2017, Meicai has been present in nearly 100 Chinese cities and has a turnover of over 10 billion Yuan (1.5 billion USD).

Liu Chuanjun was born in a rural area of ​​Shandong Province, China, and has often helped his family grow corn. He is one of the few people in the village to go to college with a major in astrophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Before the founding of Meicai, he worked for many missile projects including China’s Shenzhou spacecraft, according to the company’s website.

Meicai is participating in the fertile food delivery market, with Alibaba’s big competitors such as Meituan and Ele.me exploiting only a small part. At present, food delivery is only about 20% of Chinese consumer food, according to Harry Man, partner of Matrix Partners China, at the RISE technology conference in Hong Kong on 9/9. 7. The remaining 80% is processed at home.

“So companies that are serving consumers, delivering fresh food – vegetables, fruits, meat, seafood and everything – to their hands – will create a market many times larger than the delivery market. food (prepared), “Harry Man said.