Chinese oatmeal brand Wangbaobao gets $14m Series B

The company previously secured an angel round from Kaitai Capital and Decent in January 2019. Source Code led the Series A that December, according to AVCJ Research.

Founded in 2018 by Jing Yao, who previously ran a cosmetics store on Alibaba Group's Taobao platform, Wangbaobao was inspired by the appearance and the marketing of cosmetic products. “Whether this product is good or not, a very important dimension for us is its appearance,” said Yao. Wangbaobao is looking to transfer that marketing savvy to food.

“Our customers buy oatmeal because of our brand, rather than picking out Wangbaobao when they are looking for oatmeal,” Yao explained in a statement.

The brand became the top-selling oatmeal product on Taobao in the second half of 2019. The start-up claims to have driven 50% year-on-year sales growth for the oatmeal category as a whole. Several other traditional food brands have since adopted a similar strategy. Dairy brand Yili Group and soybean milk machine maker Jiuyang, among others, have entered the cereal space.

Meanwhile, Wangbaobao wants to replicate its success with brands in other verticals. The company is also building out its offline presence and is now available in supermarkets such as Hema and Ole.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• China
• Food
• Source Code Capital
• Vertex Ventures