GenBridge, DragonBall back China snacks brand Xueji Chaohuo

This is the start-up's first external funding round. Yonghua Zhu and Bin Chang, founding partners at DragonBall and GenBridge, respectively, will join its board. Proceeds will mainly go towards store expansion, factory construction, and digital upgrades.

Founded in 2002, Xueji produces freshly roasted nuts, melon seeds, peanuts, as well as dried fruits and vegetables. The founder, Xingzhu Xue, started out running a store with his father in the 1990s and rose to prominence as the “melon seeds king” in his home province of Shandong. He is known for using high-quality raw materials from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Xueji has more than 700 outlets, of which 150 are in Jinan, the capital of Shandong. It plans to expand to 1,000 in 2022.

Roasted seeds and nuts are the second-largest casual food category in China. The market was worth CNY 141.5bn in 2020, according to Zheshang Securities, but it remains highly fragmented, implying strong growth potential for leading players that can act as consolidators.

"We continue to dig deep to back top consumer brands with their own store networks," said Zhu. "Xueji is a key player in the snacks industry, having accumulated core competencies in product development and supply chains."

DragonBall is a venture capital unit under online-to-offline services platform Meituan. Zhu added that Xueji would collaborate with various divisions of Meituan and benefit from resources in the company's ecosystem.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• China
• GenBridge Capital
• Meituan-Dianping
• Food