Chinese restaurant services app receives $63m

The investment values Mwee.cn at RMB4 billion. The company – its full name is  Meiweibuyongdeng, which means "no need to wait for delicious food" in Chinese – was founded in 2013 as a tool for improving restaurant efficiency. It operates a mobile booking platform, so diners don't have to wait in line for extended periods, as well as app-based ordering, payment, and takeaway management services.

Mwee works with 100,000 restaurants and claims to have served nearly one billion customers. In 2017, the number of orders processed exceeded 300 million and gross merchandise volume was close to RMB30 billion, according to statements published by China Renaissance and Tiantu Capital. The former advised on the latest funding round while the latter is an early investor in the company.

The new funding will go towards R&D and product marketing. Mwee is developing a smart restaurant concept whereby its platform will not only manage bookings, ordering and payment, but also catering supply chains, customer relationship management programs, and marketing based on the data it generates.

The company also plans to launch its first "shared restaurant" in Shanghai in June. Targeting certain shopping districts, the Mwee app will allow diners to order food from different restaurants within an 800-meter radius and have it served to them in a single kitchen-less location.

Mwee received angel funding from Shanda Capital in 2013 and then a Series A round from Matrix Partners China and Albatross Venture the following year. A further two rounds were completed in 2015, with Tiantu leading a $20 million Series B and Baidu participating in a RMB500 million Series C. Twelve months later, Mwee raised a Series C-plus round at a valuation of RMB3 billion, with Alibaba's Alipay platform and China Vision Capital making contributions.

Last month, Alibaba agreed to acquire all the remaining shares of Ele.me, a food delivery platform backed by several private equity investors, in a transaction that values the company at $9.5 billion. The company will continue to operate under its own brand but its services will be combined with those of Koubei.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• Alibaba Group
• Growth capital
• TMT
• Matrix Partners
• Tiantu Capital