Text | Analysys analysis
As a forward-looking content in the field of digital economy, the "Digital Economy Panorama White Paper" comprehensively interprets and reviews the digital economy through detailed data, helping enterprises grasp the direction under the tide of digital transformation and find new opportunities for overtaking in curves.
The White Paper on the Panorama of the Digital Economy adds a new chapter. In 2021, new consumption is still the darling of capital, and the number and amount of investment and financing events in the industry have reached a new high in recent years; but since the second half of the year, the industry investment and financing has cooled down, the CVC investment tide has risen, and the industry has entered a period of integration. Food, catering, personal care and cosmetics, drinks and beverages lead the way. In the future, new consumption is still the focus of capital attention, but investment and financing will tend to be rational, no longer blindly tracking track hotspots and complete start-up enterprises, but paying more attention to enterprises with strong intrinsic value and certainty; category differentiation is becoming more and more obvious, and industry integration will be further intensified.
Overview of investment and financing in the new consumer industry in 2021
- In 2021, new consumption is still the darling of capital, and the number and amount of investment and financing in the industry have reached a new high in recent years
In 2021, new consumption is still highly sought after, according to incomplete statistics, the number of new consumer financing events in eight major industries including catering, food, alcohol and beverages, personal care and beauty, pet consumption, household department stores, digital home appliances and clothing and apparel in the whole year totaled 726 cases, and the number of financing events in the whole industry totaled 8045 cases in the same period, and the proportion of new consumer investment and financing reached 9.02%, the highest proportion in recent years.
According to ruibeast analysis data, as of 2021Q3, the amount of financing obtained by the new consumer industry has far exceeded the whole of 2020, and has also created a new high in financing since 2017.
- Behind the record number of financing events and the amount of financing in the new consumption sector is the attraction of new consumption to capital:
Under the background of common prosperity, economic circulation, technology-led supply-side reform and double-reduction policies, the Internet and education industries have stepped on the brakes, and the consumer industry has ushered in new development opportunities along with the main direction of digital transformation and consumption upgrading;
On the other hand, the epidemic has accelerated the evolution of new consumption, new trends, and new patterns; the transformation of consumption structure brought about by China's consumption upgrading has provided the bottom soil for the emergence of new consumption; the rapid iteration of mobile Internet, short video, 5G technology, etc., has accelerated the rapid popularization and deepening of new consumption;
At the same time, the underlying "thrust" brought about by crowd iteration and subdivision upgrading, the industrial "pull" formed by power change and ecological restructuring, and the endogenous "driving force" constructed by digital revolution and model upgrading jointly constitute the three major industrial forces and promote the rise of China's new consumer industry;
From a global perspective, with the transfer of global economic centers and consumption centers, China is about to become a new world-class brand incubation center, attracting the attention of brands around the world.
- In the second half of the year, new consumer investment and financing cooled down and returned to rationality
In the first half of 2021, new consumer investment and financing have been soaring, becoming the hottest track for investment and financing in the whole industry; by July, the number of investment and financing events reached its peak, and the number and amount of financing events in the second half of the year declined, the industry cooled down, and returned to rationality.
On the one hand, in many tracks such as beauty and tea, new consumer head brands have been born, the market size and the number of users are far ahead, and there are brands that have successfully IPO, making it more difficult for the brands that enter after them to run out; and in the fields of food, catering, etc., the amount and amount of financing have exploded in a short period of time, and many investment institutions have been carded in advance, but they have also pushed up the brand valuation, and the new institutions will enter more cautiously;
On the other hand, the new consumption "first shares" of the various tracks that have been listed have fallen all the way, and as of January 2022, the market value of Yixian e-commerce has exceeded 80%, the market value of Nesher's tea has exceeded 60%, and bubble Mart has been down all the way since March 2021, and the highest point has been cut. The left hand is highly valued, but the right hand market value continues to decline, and capital begins to re-examine the logic of new consumer investment.
Returning to the business itself, in the past 5 years, with the gradual consumption force after 90/95, new consumer brands have risen rapidly by meeting the needs of a new generation of consumers and making full use of the dividends brought by the rise of the mobile Internet; but the traditional giants have set off their own counterattacks in the second half of 2021 after years of observation, learning and imitation, of which the 2021 double 11 is the first "comprehensive battle" between new and old brands. Under the opening of the new and old offensive and defensive situations, business returns to its essence, and new consumer investment and financing also returns to rationality.
- CVC and industrial capital, investment institutions in parallel, the industry into the integration period
In 2021, the new consumer investment and financing not only attracts the vision of professional investment institutions and industrial ecological platforms, but also attracts new consumer brands that have a high reputation in the market, while accepting institutional investment, while creating CVC foreign investment, through equity participation or acquisition, or vertically to create upstream and downstream barriers in the industrial chain, or horizontal expansion of business scope, to consolidate brand strength.
The establishment of CVC by new consumer brands is one of the ways to find the second growth curve under the circumstance that the ecological dividend of emerging industries is gradually fading, and the Houlang brand is facing the collective counterattack of the Qianlang brand, and it is also a convenient way to expand the business scope under the slowdown of the growth rate of the main business. At the same time, it is more difficult for new consumer brands to go out of the circle, or face acquisitions and mergers and acquisitions, and the industry has entered a period of integration.
At present, CVC participates in new consumer investment, there are mainly four types:
(1) Vertically build the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, and link and empower with the main business: Taking Bubble Mart as an example, since April 2021, it has successively participated in the investment of brands such as Hanfu brand more than 13, pan-two-dimensional retail brand Cat Galaxy, original animation IP research and development institutions two-point ten animation, and two-dimensional headphone developer Youwu, facing the two-dimensional consumer population.
(2) Horizontal expansion of business, breaking through the original business scope: Taking Yuanqi Forest as an example, since December 2020, through investment in light food, Never Coffee, Jide electrical appliances, etc., it has entered the track of light food, wine, coffee, home appliances, etc.; and the challenger capital created by its founder Tang Binsen has invested in nearly 100 new consumer brands, involved in food, catering, home appliances, pets and other tracks, and has formed a huge investment network.
(3) Horizontally expand categories in the original industry, covering different consumer groups: mainly tea beverage enterprises, in 2021, Xicha, Tea Beauty, Michelle Ice City, etc. have set up CVC to participate in the investment of tea, coffee, fruit tea, juice and other brands to expand the business track.
(4) Mergers and acquisitions, acquisitions, and brand matrix: Taking Perfect Diary as an example, its acquisition of Little Odin, EVE Lom, etc., expands the category at the same time, creates different levels of consumer groups, and forms a multi-brand matrix.
Investment and financing analysis of new consumption sub-industries
In 2021, food, catering, personal care and beauty, and alcohol and beverages will lead the investment and financing of the new consumer industry.
- The food industry is leading in financing, with a healthy, delicious, convenient and national trend trend, and fast food, health food and leisure food are favored
Food as a daily necessity and a market size of tens of trillions, along with consumption upgrades, new species and categories continue to emerge, and the epidemic has further accelerated the speed of new consumer brands to attack the city. In 2021, food became a big winner in new consumer investment and financing, with a total of 165 financing events throughout the year, with a cumulative financing amount of 26.5 billion yuan, including 48 cases of financing events of more than 100 million yuan; Weilong Food Series A, Pot Circle Food Hui D Round, October Rice Field B Round won high financing of 3.56 billion yuan, 300 million US dollars and 1.45 billion yuan respectively, and Ligao Food, Nanqiao Food, Zuming Shares, Happy Home and other brand IPOs jointly raised the overall financing amount of the food industry.
The overall investment and financing of the food industry presents a trend of "health, convenience, deliciousness and national tide", corresponding to which the main healthy health food, plant food (including plant-based, plant-based meat and other foods), the main convenient fast food and pre-made dish brands, the consumption upgrade of the focus on delicious office leisure food and condiments, and the main national tide of Chinese dim sum and other baking brands favored by capital. In addition, in the digital era, the relevant traditional giants that specialize in the upstream and downstream of the food industry chain have also gained capital pursuit, and there have been many IPO cases, and their financing amounts are also higher.
In terms of brands, "a new generation of health care product brand" KOOYO in just half a year, has won 4 consecutive rounds of financing, growing rapidly; leisure snack giant Weilong Food in the application for Hong Kong IPO before the A round of financing up to 3.56 billion yuan, won the top financing amount, CPE, Hillhouse Capital led the investment, Sequoia China, Tencent, Yunfeng Fund and other investment, the investment institution lineup can be described as strong; Hutou Bureau, Mo Mo Dim Sum Bureau, Xianghe Rao Shop and other Chinese dim sum brands, have obtained more than 100 million yuan of financing amount, It has become a rising star in the food industry, leading the national tide trend of the food industry; grasping the self-hi pot that exploded under the epidemic situation of single-person convenience scene, maintaining a high-speed growth trend in 2021, and obtaining C+ round and 100 million yuan of C++ round financing respectively; Huang Xiao pig, daily cooking, and Jin Noodle Tang, which are mainly convenient and fast food, have also received at least 2 rounds of financing; in the case that domestic seasoning brands have been occupied by giants, in 2021, the emerging brands of condiments will rise, and brands such as Chuanwazi, Jia dian taste, Xibao research and research, and taste quan have received large financing In addition, Minayo, BUFFX, U card, etc., which specialize in functional foods, have attracted attention, or the future can be worth looking forward to the track.
- The proportion of large financing in catering is high, and tea drinks, coffee rolls, flour noodles, local snacks, and Chinese fast food have become hot tracks
In 2021, although the catering industry is still affected by the epidemic, many catering companies have declined in revenue, and even directly closed stores, but in the crisis, the capital market has keenly smelled new business opportunities. There were 104 cases of financing events in the catering industry throughout the year, with a financing amount of 26.04 billion yuan, which was basically the same as that of the food industry; the number of large financings of more than 100 million yuan accounted for about 40%, of which Nai Xue's tea, Helens, Wen Heyou and other financing amounts were the first.
The reason why catering has won the favor of the capital market and obtained high financing is inseparable from the improvement of the standardization of the catering market. In the past, catering enterprises were unable to grow rapidly due to problems such as imperfect supply chains, food safety, and different tastes in various places, affecting their performance in the capital market. With the maturity of cold chain logistics technology at the supply chain end, through the cooperation between the central kitchen of catering enterprises and third-party distribution agencies, the problem of cross-store distribution has been effectively solved, so that chain catering enterprises can be copied and expanded on a large scale; in the era of digital and intelligent management, many professional third-party service agencies have emerged in all aspects of catering, helping catering enterprises to significantly improve their operational efficiency; and the development of mobile Internet, the maturity of takeaway business, has greatly improved the coverage and use scenarios of catering enterprises; the standardized market environment of catering enterprises has matured. Significantly enhance the imagination space of capital for restaurant enterprises.
In each subdivision track, tea and coffee, which are the main new consumers after 90/95, are undoubtedly still the hottest track in the catering industry, and the amount and amount of financing are both in the front; tea drinks have obtained a total of 14 financings, with a financing amount of up to 9.54 billion yuan, and coffee has obtained 13 financings with a total amount of 4.72 billion yuan; noodles have also received great attention in 2021, with a total of 15 financings, but the financing amount is still low, a total of 1.71 billion yuan.
In addition, it is worth noting that brands such as clean, convenient and fast Chinese fast food, snacks with local characteristics, and hot pots that are easy to replicate on a large scale are also attracting the attention of capital and are becoming a fast-growing track.
The tea market in 2021 is very lively; on June 18, Nai Xue's tea received a strategic financing of HK$5.858 billion, becoming the largest single financing in the catering field, showing the expectations of investors; on June 30, it officially IPOed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first stock of new-style tea drinks; Xicha, which also focuses on the high-end tea market, received a $500 million Series D financing on July 13; and a number of brands such as Bawang Bieji and Shanghai Auntie raised more than 100 million yuan.
However, behind the glamorous beauty, Nai Xue's tea listing is broken, and the current market value has continued to fall by more than 60%; Heytea has created a sub-brand of "Xi Xiao Tea" and announced a price reduction in January 2022; the main national tide, once a cup of hard-to-find tea Yan Yuese, closed 89 stores in November, and was pushed on the hot search in December due to salary disputes... The institution's strong enthusiasm and the market's negative feedback at the same time, the tea market ushered in a turning point, relying solely on feelings is not enough to maintain the brand, in the future tea companies will be in product upgrades, model upgrades, supply chain building, digital operations and other aspects of the competition strength.
Also lively is the coffee market, China's huge coffee market scale space, attracting capital and entrepreneurs crazy influx; Luckin Coffee in 2021 "came back to life", in April received a $250 million post-IPO round of financing, and with a cup of "raw coconut latte", to achieve sales of more than 10 million cups in a single month, accelerating the process of Luckin to achieve profitability; its same main cost-effective specialty coffee market Manner Coffee led the coffee track with 3 financings, The total amount may be close to 2 billion yuan. In addition, M Stand, Tim Hortons China and Seesaw Coffee received financing of RMB500 million, US$50 million and RMB100 million respectively. The coffee track is caught in the middle.
In the field of traditional catering, both the national trend of the chain catering Wenheyou has obtained billions of yuan of financing, and there is a rapid growth of noodle fast food such as Hefu Lao noodles, Lanzhou ramen, Chongqing small noodles, etc.; and as more and more young people pay attention to social catering needs, small town youth have money and leisure at the moment, the main local snacks of Kwafu fried skewers, Xijie fried skewers, Yongdingmen electric barbecue, etc. have become an emerging force that cannot be ignored in the catering market.
- The personal beauty track is still hot, the basic makeup financing is cold, skin care, oral care, men's grooming have attracted attention, ingredients, consumption upgrades, and his consumption have become keywords
In 2021, the investment and financing of personal care and beauty is still hot, with a total of 104 investments, with a total financing of 15.27 billion yuan, of which 39 cases of financing events of more than 100 million yuan and a total financing of 13.8 billion yuan have migrated from the past makeup to skin care, oral care, eye care, men's grooming, personal care and other tracks.
With the growth of the 90/95 after the makeup domestic brand, such as Perfect Diary, Huaxizi, colorkey, etc., leading the domestic beauty investment and financing track, and with the help of live e-commerce, Xiaohongshu and other ecological rapid growth, quickly occupy the first position in the sales volume of subdivision categories, growing into "the light of domestic products". In November 2020, Perfect Diary was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which made domestic cosmetics usher in a highlight moment, but its market value fell by tens of billions of DOLLARs after listing, allowing investors to have a deeper understanding of the industry and investment tended to be cautious.
In 2021, skin care has become the hottest track for beauty care, emphasizing pure, natural, herbal, hyaluronic acid and other ingredients and functional skin care brands are favored. On the one hand, with the rise of short videos, social networking, grass planting platforms, etc., users are more likely to get more knowledge and become more professional, so they pay more attention to the health of the ingredients of the product itself; on the other hand, in the pursuit of the beauty of appearance, more and more users pay attention to pleasing themselves, pay attention to the state of the skin itself, and pay more attention to the quality of skin care products; under such demand, more professional skin care brands are run. For example, the medical skin care brand Bethanie (Winona's parent company), IPO on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on March 25, raising 3.01 billion yuan; Freda Biologics, which focuses on the research and development of hyaluronic acid skin care products, has received a strategic investment of 738 million yuan; and many brands such as Zhiben, Ximuyuan, Lan, Xue Lingfei and Lin Qingxuan have also received more than 100 million yuan in financing.
Another trend in the industry is "consumption upgrading", in addition to focusing on basic makeup, users migrate to higher level of nursing needs, oral care, head care, personal care, beauty pupils, etc. have obtained a lot of performance. Among them, as a subdivision of differentiated growth in the field of color cosmetics, mei hitomi may attract much attention with the general wearing of masks by users under the epidemic, and the eyes have become an important window for expressing personality. Among them, MOODY received 380 million yuan of B+ round financing and 1 billion yuan of C round financing respectively, leading the US pupil category, while KILALA Cola, Yue Pupil and 4inLOOK received financing of 400 million yuan, 300 million yuan and 100 million yuan respectively.
"He consumes" is the third trend, and in 2021, men's grooming brands have gained attention. The men's comprehensive personal care brand has obtained a total of 450 million yuan in financing and obtained a lot of sales performance in Channels such as Tmall. Blue, Tabula Rasa and others have attracted attention.
It is worth noting that the makeup collection retail stores have also obtained good financing results, obtaining a total of 9 financings, with a total amount of about 1.8 billion. At the moment when domestic cosmetics and overseas niche brands are emerging, online traffic is becoming more and more expensive, and offline stores have become a new round of fighting battlefields for brands, but offline stores have high operating costs and require more SKUs, new brands or niche brands are difficult to undertake or operate independently, and offline makeup collection stores that integrate multiple brands and categories have come into being, which has been welcomed by consumers and investors. For example, HAYDON Black Hole, which obtained $100 million in A+ round financing, WOW COLOUR, a subsidiary of Mingchuang Premium, obtained a round of A financing of 500 million yuan, and the investors have innovation workshops, and there is also the blessing of IDG Capital. In addition, there are a number of collective store brands such as INTO YOU and B+ oil tanks that have obtained financing.
- Clothing and apparel financing picked up, the front wave and the back wave were intertwined; the market segment was diversified, functional shoes and clothing, personality trends, and national style brands were favored, and jewelry accessories were sought after
In 2021, the financing of clothing and apparel picked up, with a total of 62 financing events throughout the year, with a financing amount of 16.9 billion yuan; of which 27 cases of financing of more than 100 million yuan, the financing amount of 16.12 billion yuan; different from other new consumption areas after the wave brand, the traditional giants in the clothing and apparel industry have a higher financing amount, showing a competitive situation of pre-wave and post-wave interweaving.
Specific to different market segments:
Functional fashion brands that pay more attention to quality and functionality have obtained a total of 8 financings with a financing amount of 2.19 billion yuan, of which Peak Sports has received a strategic investment of 300 million US dollars, ranking first;
More attention to the design diversification, fashion, personalized personality trend market, genderless clothing market, Guofeng market, etc. have been funded by brands: such as the KNOWIN trend lab, BEASTER, Dopp Culture, etc., which focus on personality trends, have obtained more than 100 million yuan of financing; genderless clothing brand Boise has obtained hundreds of millions of yuan of B+ round financing; the cutting-edge underwear brand emphasizing independence and autonomy has obtained 100 million US dollars of D round financing inside and outside; and the national wind brand has obtained 100 million yuan of A round financing.
In the field of jewelry accessories, there are both large IPO financings from giants such as China Gold, Caibai Shares, Mancaron, DR and other giants facing a large age group, and cutting-edge accessories brands facing a new generation of young people rising from the high concentration market, such as LightMark, ACC Super Jewelry, LUCYLEE, Duanmu Liangjin, etc.
- The maternal and infant market is oriented to consumption upgrades, and zero complementary foods are rising rapidly
Driven by the three-child policy and the driving force of consumption upgrading and crowd iteration, in 2021, the maternal and infant products market will hit a new high in recent years in terms of the number of financing and the amount of financing. A total of 29 financing incidents occurred, with a financing amount of 7.3 billion yuan, of which 11 cases exceeded 100 million yuan, with a financing amount of 6.89 billion yuan.
With the new generation of maternal and infant users attaching importance to health and nutrition, the main health, nutrition, less sugar, additive-free baby and child snack supplements have risen rapidly. In 2021, the track received a total of 14 financing incidents, leading the entire maternal and infant industry, but the total amount of financing is still low, a total of 570 million yuan; baby and child snack supplements are still in the early stage of development and are about to usher in an outbreak period.
Among them, Doo Cat Cat, Wo Xiao Ya and Akita Manman all received 2 financings, with a total financing amount of more than 100 million yuan in the front; the baby was hungry and received 100 million yuan A+ round of financing; The little yellow elephant, the full score of cattle and cattle, and the vegetable Gele have also received tens of millions of yuan of financing.
In addition, as the baby and child snack food brand under the three squirrels, the deer blue blue has a considerable performance, although it has not obtained financing, it is also an important force that cannot be ignored in the field of baby and child snack food, or it may become the second growth curve of the three squirrels.
In the field of maternal and infant products, Babycare, a brand of all categories of products that pays attention to product quality, design and appearance, has made rapid progress in recent years and has also been recognized by the capital market, and will receive 700 million yuan of B round financing in 2021.
Toy brand Bruker, by creating a differentiated market, paying attention to the 1-6-year-old infant building block market, stands out among many toy brands and obtains a B round of financing of 600 million yuan.
The mother and baby retail giant Child King, after years of deep cultivation, successfully IPO in A-shares, with a financing amount of 628 million yuan.
- The future investment and financing trend of the new consumer industry tends to be rational, the category differentiation, and the integration is intensified
In the future, the new consumer industry will still be the focus of the capital market, the star sea, still can be expected; but as new consumption enters the second half, the counterattack from international brands and qianlang brands will make the competition more intense; under the channel dividend decay, internal and external confrontation and the full opening of new and old attacks and defenses, competition will return to the essence of business, from "heavy marketing" to "model, product, supply chain, operation" and other aspects of the strength competition.
The valuation and investment logic of the capital will change, the national tide will no longer be a concept that can be overdrawn, and the simple performance growth may no longer be able to make the capital generous. New consumer investment and financing will tend to be rational: no longer blindly tracking track hotspots and complete start-up companies, but paying more attention to enterprises with strong intrinsic value and certainty.
After 5 years of development of new consumption, different categories and different tracks have different performances, in 2021 Tmall "double 11" in various segments of the field of Houlang and Evergreen brand TOP10 power map, in the field of traditional brands, traditional values, strong Matthew effect, Qianlang Evergreen brand has fully recovered lost ground; and in the field of new species and new value, the Houlang dark horse brand has basically gained a foothold, and even some categories have achieved obvious leading advantages. In the future, the differentiation trend of new consumer goods will become more and more obvious.
Specific to the brand, the Houlang brands that have entered the market earlier and have achieved some scale advantages will continue to receive the attention of the capital, or will obtain higher rounds and higher amounts of financing to help them accelerate out of the circle; on the other hand, the Houlang brands that have run to the head of the subdivision field will also quickly attack the city through CVC investment, participate in, acquire or acquire new brands, strengthen their own moat, the stronger the stronger, and the difficulty of the latecomers to get out of the circle will increase, and the integration between the industries will be further intensified.
Facing the future, the Houlang brand can only quickly get out of the circle through digital in-depth insight, meet new consumer needs, and upgrade through the digital intelligence model:
1. Fixed category: choose the "double high category" with high market attractiveness in the industry and high probability of success in the post-wave;
2. Select the track: select the emerging market segment, or tap the current blank but large-scale market segment;
3. Grasp the trend: judge the future development trend through in-depth user insight and industrial ecological insight;
4. Transfer mode: Upgrade the digital intelligence model in the operation mode, supply chain model, etc., and form a value closed loop.