China's DayDayCook agrees $300m SPAC merger

Within the last week, DayDayCook received funding from specialist food, agriculture, and natural resources investor Proterra Investment Partners.

The company received a RMB35 million ($5.3 million) in a Series A round in 2016 from 500 Startups, Heyi Capital, and MFund, AVCJ Research’s records show. Gobi Partners provided a RMB35 million extension later in 2016, and then led a RMB100 million Series B in 2017. AMTD Digital invested the following year, with Talis Capital and Ironfire Ventures committing $20 million in 2020.

DayDayCook also refers to K11 – a lifestyle brand affiliated to Hong Kong-listed property developer New World Group – and Henderson Land, another developer that trades in Hong Kong, as investors.

The SPAC, Ace Global Business Acquisition, raised $40 million in April with a view to pursuing mergers with gaming or e-commerce companies in China, Southeast Asia, and Japan. It was established by Eugene Wong, a managing director at Japanese GP Whiz Partners Asia and CIO of China Hero PJ Fund, an incubation program for developers creating PlayStation games.

The US regulatory filings do not detail the ownership of the merged entity – typically, the sponsor’s 20% interest in the SPAC converts into equity in the merged entity on a pro rata basis, while existing investors in the target company role over their stakes – or give financial statements for DayDayCook.

Ace Global merely stated that DayDayCook would have an equity valuation of $377-387 million, with the SPAC contributing $46.9 million from its trust account and launching a concurrent PIPE placement of $30-40 million. Shareholders in DayDayCook will receive $30 million worth of shares in the merged entity, while there are earnout provisions for company management.

DayDayCook was founded by Norma Chu (pictured) in 2012 in Hong Kong, from where it produced short cooking videos that were published on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. The company entered the mainland market in 2015 – via Youku, Tencent Video, Sina Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat – and gradually morphed into a cooking and lifestyle platform.

In 2017, experience stores opened in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan, enabling fans of the videos to participate in in-person cooking classes. Two years later, DayDayCook became a direct-to-consumer brand, releasing over 100 ready-to-heat (RTH) and ready-to-cook (RTC) products. These are sold online and offline. Latterly, the company has started offering plant-based meat products.

DayDayCook claims its videos have been viewed more than three billion times globally, while there have been over 10 million orders for its products. Citing Guohai Securities research, the company expects the global RTC market to see compound annual growth of 20% through 2027, reaching $150 billion, driven by structural changes in consumer behavior and preferences.

“With the success and experience of the group’s entry to the RTH, RTC and plant-based products in the market over the past two years, management expects the group’s revenue will increase rapidly over the next few years. As market trend dictates that RTH and RTC foods’ penetration will continue to deepen in the foreseeable future,” Chu said in a statement.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Media
• IPO
• China
• Hong Kong (China)
• SPAC
• TMT
• Proterra Investment Partners
• Gobi Partners
• 500 Startups