Dragon Ball, CDH lead Series C in China's Lehe Food

Dragon Ball is controlled by Meituan-Dianping, China's largest online-to-offline (O2O) services platform, which relies on B2C food delivery for a significant amount of its revenue. Investing in Lehe is not the company's first foray into the upstream B2B segment. Last year, Meituan-Dianping - not Dragon Ball - backed Wangjiahuan, a Shenzhen-based agricultural products distributor.

Yonghua Zhu, a founding partner of Dragan Ball, said in a statement that group meals are an important part of Meituan-Dianping's mission to "help everyone eat better and live better." Lehe has already demonstrated strong execution capabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhu added. Dragon Ball will help the company upgrade its supply chains.

Founded in 2006, Guangzhou-headquartered Lehe has interests spanning food ingredients distribution, catering services, vegetable processing, and cold chain logistics. It claims to have a presence in hundreds of cities across China. Expansion comes through joint ventures with local players. The company plans to establish 300 food distribution centers nationwide within two years.

China's food industry generated revenue of RMB4.67 trillion in 2019, up 9.4% year-on-year, according to the China Hospitality Association. Food services for non-commercial businesses such as schools and company canteens accounted for RMB1.2 trillion.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Food
• China
• CDH Investments Management
• Meituan-Dianping