Government funds back Chinese online grocer Miss Fresh

The investors include Qingdao government-backed Guoxin Group, a guidance fund launched by local authorities, and a venture capital unit under the city's Chengyang district.

Miss Fresh will build a series of facilities, including a smart supply chain center, in Chengyang. Zheng Xu, the company's founder and CEO, said there would be more investment in Qingdao, deeper cooperation with other enterprises in the city, and an initiative to support the development of local agriculture and food industries.

Miss Fresh was established in 2015 by two former executives at Joyvio Group, an agribusiness unit of Legend Holdings, that runs a similar online supermarket for agricultural products. The company operates under a front-end warehouse model, guaranteeing delivery within 30 minutes - from a selection of over 3,000 products - in 16 cities. It claims to have China's largest self-built cold chain logistics system for instant delivery.

In July, the company raised $495 million in funding, said to be the largest private round ever seen in the country's fresh produce industry. The round was led by CICC Capital with additional contributions from ICBC International, Tencent Holdings, Abu Dhabi Capital Group, Suzhou Changshu Government Industry Fund, Tiger Global Management, and Goldman Sachs.

Miss Fresh received $5 million in angel funding from GX Capital on its inception and then raised a Series A round of undisclosed size from Tencent Holdings and GX. Between 2015 and 2016, a Series B of RMB430 million closed across two tranches. This was followed by a $330 million Series C in 2017 that featured Tiger Global, Genesis Capital, Lenovo Capital, and Zheshang Venture Capital.

In 2018, Miss Fresh raised a $450 million round led by Tencent, Goldman, Jeneration Capital, and Davis Selected Advisers.

Competitors include Hema Fresh, a 24-hour online and offline fresh food delivery service backed by Alibaba. JD.com has also rolled out its own online fresh food channel as well as opening the 7Fresh supermarket in Beijing.

Among the newcomers to the space is Shihuituan, a community group buying platform also known as Nice Tuan. Earlier this month, it raised $196 million in the fourth tranche of a Series C round led by Alibaba and Jeneration.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Consumer
• Technology
• China
• e-commerce
• TMT
• Growth capital