Matrix Partners May 11 2020

Recently, the convenience fast food sales leading new brand Zihaiquo announced that it has completed more than RMB100 million of Round B financing at the beginning of this year. This round of financing is exclusively invested by Matrix Partners China.

Wang Huadong, a partner of Matrix Partners China, said, “The convenience food market has a huge capacity potential, & new categories have continued to emerge in recent years, and online penetration has continued to increase. As an industry veteran, the Zihaiquo team led by Cai Hongliang positioning from the self-heating tech track, brand, channel and other aspects have made many innovations, and quickly become industry’s top players. We especially like the continuous investment of Cai Hongliang’s team in product development, which will have a positive impact towards the entire industry. “

In March 2020, Baicaowei went to the international stage and became a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. Cai Hongliang, the founder of this leading snack food brand 17 years ago, has begun a new journey on the start-up business track.

The Covid-19 epidemic has led general sales of players in the entire convenience food space to rise. Since the beginning of the establishment of the Zihaiquo team, it has had a deep thinking about the brand ’s mission and the opportunity of sales track. With a year-on-year increase of 5 times in 2019, Cai Hongliang is leading the team to run at the leading position of this grand business track at the fastest pace.

 “There is a huge market among takeaway and traditional convenience instant food. The new generation of young people are reluctant and have no time to cook. How to make them eat well and convenient in various scenarios. A big proposition, here also contains the inevitable opportunity for the rise of new brands.” Cai Hongliang said,” Zihaiquo basically achieves three things – product, brand & channel power. “

Zihaiquo’s understanding of product power is to persevere in the pursuit of taste, ingredients and craftsmanship – how to use healthy craftsmanship to restore as much traditional local delicious food as possible. Cai Hongliang believes that majority young people today prefer to have a strong taste, and the taste is very rich developed since childhood. The heavy taste brings them pleasant memory and excitement. So in terms of taste, since the Zihaiquo team has been thinking about what kind of taste can bring good memory, how can it be more mellow? And not only should it be mellow, but also visually “delicious”, smell, aftertaste, smoothness, swallowing, etc., & finally into the stomach, this is a coherent perception .

In the selection and processing technology of ingredients, Zihaiquo also has its own insistence: focus on the origin of ingredients, use the best process or use the physical characteristics of ingredients to achieve, rather than through chemical composition synthesis. Zihaiquo first online series of spicy beef hot pot insisted on adopting freeze-drying technology to solve the problem of moisture and nutrient retention of ingredients, without any added preservatives. “Our understanding of deliciousness is that health is priority, and it does not bring guilty in deliciousness,” Cai Hongliang said. Since the Zihaiquo team adheres to this product concept, since its inception in 2018, it has launched more than 100 matrix SKUs that span the price band of 10-40 yuan, with multiple flavors and ingredients.

Since the beginning of the establishment of Zihaiquo, the first department established is the “brand management department”, starting from the private channel of movie star fans & fans club, to the penetration into TV series that young people love to watch; from the IP joint cooperation of e-sports crowds, to now surprisingly during the first month of 2020, the first online premiere movie “Lost in Russia 囧 妈” in China with more than 200 million viewers. Since the Zihaiquo team has created the brand’s popularity and reputation in a short time, “We are in the whole brand building. We will pay attention to how to make our users like it, or stand with the user in a dimension, reflecting the brand’s own attitude and spirit. This delicious thing may be followed by players, and what we have to do is to taste. Besides, it is also fun or interesting. It is a three-dimensional brand that can be remembered in multiple dimensions. “Cai Hongliang reckons.

An instant live broadcast on the eve of Double Twelve in 2019, half a hour of 50 million sales enabled Zihaiquo to achieve a miracle of Simba’s delivery of goods, and also brought a lot of die-hard loyal fans from the Northeast to Zihaiquo. “Live broadcasting is a new form of shelf space of sales. For Zihaiquo, in addition to the meaning of the shelf space, it is more necessary to inform the user through an intuitive live broadcast form to allow delicious self-heating food to regain the user’s trust. It’s a brand that hasn’t been branded as yet, so it’s a big problem. ”Cai Hongliang said.

Since Zihaiquo went from online to offline in November 2018 and entered the offline channel, it has penetrated nearly 80% of the cities offline. The team believes that the process of going online to offline is an inevitable step for this category. What is met offline is the ready-to-eat attribute of this category. Since the Zihaiquo can appear in different scenarios of user needs, home or outdoor, as a single individual or a party, office or campus, dinner or supper, Zihaiquo can be a convenient and delicious ready-to-eat catering solution, and offline will inevitably carry a broader market space. Zihaiguo has a strong and mature offline team, which made this time come very early, and also quickly won a larger market share for this new brand.

At the beginning of 2018, new consumer brands in various fields are emerging, and all consumer products are worth being re-engineered. Zihaiguo believes that in targeting today needs of the new Y & Z generation, the maturity of online buying habits is now providing the best opportunity for new brands. Today, 17 years later, Cai Hongliang, a serial entrepreneur, has chosen a more demanding and expansive catering proposition. Once again set sail, he has deeper thinking, wider industry resources and more mature style of play, and has brought Zihaiquo brand to the industry leading position with the fastest pace.

However, what has remained unchanged for many years is still the dedication of the product manager’s helm to the product. Before the establishment of Zihaiquo brand, Cai Hongliang spent a year traveling through alleys in Chongqing, Chengdu to eat & have tasted more than 100 hot pot bases in more than 100 hot pot restaurants. A year later, as a native of Zhejiang, he is no longer afraid of spiciness. “Young people love to sing” I eat hot pot, you eat hot pot base ingredients”, I am really experiencing it. Don’t change your mind, since the hot pot needs to use the best innovative products, to reach out to our target customers & users with new channels and become their favorite brand choice. This business track is very long, and we are also optimistic about other major growth areas such as beverages and convenience dishes. I will work with my team to achieve further successful work in my entrepreneurial career. “Cai Hongliang said.