Bangbangqiang, an e-commerce platform for dining discounts, raised several million dollars in its Series A+ funding round led by Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments Limited.
Bangbangqiang’s parent company Xunzhao Muxing was founded in 2018 and has main business lines in the group-buying sector. Xunzhao Muxing has already rolled out several local projects in major cities like Shenzhen. Bangbangqiang was established in the beginning of 2021. Its business model is similar to Pinduoduo.
Users can share listings of meals at budget restaurants, discounts included. People in their social network can then pre-pay for the meals ahead of their visits to the restaurant. In the last three months, the platform has gained 100,000 registered users and signed up 1,000 F&B businesses in Shenzhen, with daily orders reaching into the thousands.
In the three months leading up to Bangbangqiang’s official launch, 70% of orders were placed by repeat customers, who used the platform more than once within a seven-day time frame. On average, each user would convince an additional 1.5 people to join the platform, according to the company.
Co-founder Wang Zijun said his company’s goal is to attract more customers for small eateries and fast food shops. The meals usually cost less than RMB 10, or USD 1.55, and the group-buying model can boost the dining establishments’ sales, meeting the needs of both consumers and business owners. Online food-ordering giants like Meituan and Ele.me tend to only promote popular eateries, Wang Zijun said.
Founder and CEO of Bangbangqiang Wang Zhe is a serial entrepreneur. He was also previously the head of Meituan’s East China business unit. Sales director Wu Haitao was one of the core members of Meituan during the company’s early phase.
“Bangbangqiang’s edge is that it lowers customer acquisition costs and provides exposure to small business owners who don’t have a budget for promotions,” said Yin Cong, manager of Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments Limited.
In 2019, the total revenue of China’s catering industry was RMB 4.67 trillion (USD 722 billion), and in-store dining accounted for 12.7 %, translating to RMB 578 billion (USD 89.4 billion). The main platform-based businesses in the industry include Meituan Daodian, Koubei, and Baidu Nuomi.
Read this: Chinese seniors flock to shop on short-video apps
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content published by 36Kr. This article was originally written by Zi Pei for 36Kr and was adapted for KrASIA by Jiaxing Li.