After 5 years, the restaurant industry has become a hunting ground for capital.

After Hey Tea, Tencent has "betting on" Chinese noodle restaurants, investing in Hefu Lao noodles, which has 265 directly-operated stores; Lei Jun has 150 million in tea drinks, and invested in "cup desserts" in more than 800 stores around the world. ; "Guoquan", a hot pot ingredient business, has completed a $60 million Series C financing, raising nearly 900 million a year...

After the epidemic, at least more than a hundred financings have occurred in the catering industry, involving fast food, tea, supply chain, catering services and other subdivisions. The financing amount has ranged from millions to hundreds of millions.

Following the "Catering Listing Wave" in 2008 and the "Catering Investment Fever" in 2015, this year, the "third wave" of catering and capital has matured and been stable.

What kind of catering brand is capital more optimistic about? And can the spoiler of capital shake the current situation of catering?

ONE

 Venture capital:

Dozens of financing "get together" into the catering

Boost a group of cutting-edge catering companies

After the epidemic, Tomato Capital invested nearly 100 million yuan in Banu Maodu hot pot in 65 directly-operated stores.

Jiahua Capital invested nearly 100 million yuan to increase the catering dark horse "Wenheyou".

IDG Capital, Qicheng Capital, Jiayu Fund and Fuyu Venture Capital have invested nearly 900 million yuan in Guoquanshihui to help them seize the family hot pot business.

For capital that invests in food and beverage brands such as Wenheyou, Guoquan, and Banu Maodu Hot Pot, they are more of a “venture investment”.

1. Encouraged by the news of the listing of catering companies, capital quickly locked in "catering"

In the past, catering companies were not active in the capital market. In the Hong Kong stock market, there are only more than 20 catering companies such as Haidilao, Xiabuxiabu, Jiumaojiu, and Ajisen. A-shares are even one of the few, with only three.

But the good news for the listing of restaurant companies this year followed: In January, the "sauerkraut fish's first stock" Jiumaojiu was listed on the Hong Kong stock market. Although it was hit hard by the epidemic, Tongqinglou and Babi Mantou bucked the trend, and they also went up one after another. Listed!

This not only inspires catering people, but also allows capital to re-focus on emerging catering brands, either optimistic about the prospects of the category, or optimistic about the business model of the enterprise, or optimistic about the catering business of a certain track.

Although there are investment "risks", they are willing to spend "funds" and "resources" to increase catering's cutting-edge brands in order to help these powerful catering companies go public and then share the "meat" together.

2. Catering companies have also changed their attitudes towards capital under the severe impact of the epidemic

The catering industry is one of the industries with good cash flow. Food companies that are not short of money have always been very cautious about capital, but the epidemic has changed many catering owners' views on capital.

For example, Jia Guolong, who stated that Xibei will never be listed, also eased his mouth under the huge pressure on cash flow after the epidemic:

"Before, we have always been very proud, thinking that we have a good cash flow and do not need to go public, but this is our idea at that time. The epidemic has made us very anxious for a while, and we have to pay more than one billion wages every month. . Three consecutive months, it will cost 500 million, but how can we have so much money on the account?"

"The disaster is very educating. The epidemic tells me that my hematopoietic ability and anti-risk ability are not so strong, and the cash flow industry also needs capital blessing."

As a result, more and more powerful catering companies like Xibei began to learn to "handshake" with capital. Capital also sees the unlimited prospects of catering in the future, and decisively invests in the catering track.

TWO

Industry investment

Top catering companies support catering "rookie"

Seeking a second growth curve

This year, there is another type of capital investment, which tends to be industrial investment. The investors are not others, or the catering companies themselves. They are all powerful catering companies that are bigger and stronger.

These leading catering companies have good resources, good business models, and a strong supply chain system. On the one hand, they seek their own second growth curve. On the other hand, they use their own strong supply chain system to do business End supply chain business, so he began to support catering "rookie".

1. Invest in new catering brands and seek a second growth curve

Over time, catering companies will encounter bottlenecks and aging periods of brands. Many well-known restaurant companies such as Haidilao, Jiumaojiu and Xibei are all seeking their own second growth curve.

Investing in excellent catering brands that you are optimistic about, or that you want to expand the track, is the best way to enable companies to achieve growth:

For example, Jiumaojiu has invested in other catering brands since 2016, such as Encounter Xiaomian and other brands.

Haidilao acquired a noodle restaurant and a Chinese restaurant within one day, extending the sense of touch to the "ramen" category.

Xibei also continued to increase the amount of fried fast food this year, and invested in the dark horse girl to help its expansion.

Leading catering companies such as Haidilao and Xibei can help small catering companies grow rapidly through capital and model output on the one hand, so that small companies can grow and develop; on the other hand, they can also help them expand the second growth curve through innovative points of excellent catering brands. .

2. Invest in catering terminal stores to do catering back-end supply chain business

There is also a type of catering giants, when they have a strong supply chain, they seek to seek new growth in the back-end supply chain, such as Wallace, Juewei Duck Neck and other brands.

As early as 2014, Juewei Foods established Wangju Capital to focus on investment layout, such as investing in brands such as Qianwei Central Kitchen and Hefu Lao Noodles. After that, he also set up a "Absolute Fund" with Ele.me. Tomato Capital was one of the managers and invested in chain restaurant brands such as Zui Nian, Yan Bone and Agan Guokui.

Wallace has also invested in the Shaanwei food clan who has been cultivating in Beijing for 8 years and has opened more than 30 directly-operated stores within 4 months after the epidemic with a bowl of "oil-spattered noodles."

When we carefully study these investments, it is not difficult to find that there are hidden rules. Most of the catering giants want to make money in the catering supply chain by deploying more brand terminal stores.

THREE

Internet business investment:

Giants form catering "unicorn team"

Seize the local living market

Recently, good news of catering financing has followed one after another, and most of the investors are from Internet giants, such as Tencent, Ali, Xiaomi Lei Jun.

The fight on the Internet has turned into a secret catering battle. Why have the giants started to grab turf in the catering industry?

In fact, the giants are all laying out the track of "local life services"!

1. Invest in catering "little unicorns" and start to form catering "teams"

The battlefield of local life has been turbulent and filled with gunpowder, and Internet companies have begun to "compete" privately to seize this huge catering market.

When encountering a bottleneck at the C-end user level, the giants began to turn the tide of the battle and set their sights on the catering B-end companies. Through acquisitions, mergers and other methods, the catering unicorns stood in their own camp. On the one hand, Helping small unicorns quickly expand their scale, on the one hand, also quickly enhance the market competitiveness of Internet companies themselves.

This can't help making people think whether there will be Ali, Tencent, Xiaomi and other camps in the catering industry in the future.

2. Heavily “smashed” money into catering services to quickly seize the local life track

In addition to working hard on the B-end catering companies, Internet giants have also discovered a new world of catering, which is the catering service system.

In February of this year, Tencent's Weimeng acquired Yazuo. At the same time, Keruyun joined the Alibaba business operating system ecosystem, and Tongyun has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Local Life from time to time.

Catering SaaS service has also become a key investment target of Internet capital, because the catering service system is an important part of traffic operation, and the service group of catering SaaS has a high overlap with the B-end catering business in local life, which can attract more catering companies Enter your own camp and jointly seize the local life track.

FOUR

Capital is a double-edged sword

Catering companies must do a good job of "multiple choice questions"

Although the catering industry is currently in the stage of capital investment boom, capital is a double-edged sword, and investors and catering owners are also in a game relationship.

Huang Geng, founder of Huang Jihuang and chief consultant of Yum China’s Chinese Food Business Unit, once stated at a catering summit: For catering companies, capital is a "double-edged sword". The acceptance of investment must depend on whether the company has the basic genes for investment. careful.

1. Huang Jihuang Huang Geng: "If you don't take the road of industrialization, it is best not to touch this thunder pond"

Huang Geng, who has dealt with capital for many years, believes that 80% of catering companies are craftsman spirit companies, which is the foundation. However, if a catering company wants to develop on a better scale of industrialization, at this time, it must seriously think about whether its own company can take the road of ingenuity or industrialization.

If an enterprise is led by people, then it is an ingenious enterprise. If an enterprise has the entire industrial chain and is dominated by industrialized operation, then it has the basic genes to accept capital.

"If you don't accept the gene of capital, don't accept investment. Unless there is a plan to go public in the future, you must convert ingenious business to industrialized business, otherwise don't touch this thunder pool," Huang Geng said.

2. Banu Du Zhongbing: "I don't need pure capital, I need comrades-in-arms side by side"

And Banu Du Zhongbing, who accepted Tomato Capital this year, also said that "the power of capital is very important for entrepreneurship and can share risks, but the introduction of capital should consider the company's capital needs, strategic development goals, etc."

The reason why Banu accepted capital this year was not because of the need for funds for the epidemic, but because of strategic thinking.

Du Zhongbing said: "What I need is not pure capital. Ba Nu has never bothered about money in recent years. What Ba Nu needs are comrades who can fight side by side. After four years of cooperation with Tomato Capital, I think Tomato Capital is A very suitable external partner".

Capitals from all walks of life get together to "enter" the catering industry, and catering companies usher in the "third wave" with capital!

However, compared with the "listing boom" triggered by the situation in Hunan and Hubei in 2008 and the blind investment boom in catering in 2015, the advent of the third wave seems more "reliable" and "safe".

Catering and capital are in a stable "two-way choice". Capital is looking for powerful and potential catering brands. Catering companies choose appropriate capital based on their own development. The two sides collide with each other to create more "sparks" through cooperation.