China’s on-demand beverage chain Coffee Box has raised RMB 206 million (USD 30.6 million) in its Series B3 financing round, reported 36Kr on Wednesday.
Qiming Venture Partners and Gaorong Capital were among the investors, along with individual investors including the startup’s co-founders Wang Jiang and Zhang Xiaogao.
Unlike Luckin Coffee, which has made huge losses during its less than 2-year operational history, Coffee Box is already profitable.
The company, which was set up four years ago, made its first profits by just fetching Starbucks or Costa coffee for individuals before creating its own brand Coffee Box.
It started with an “asset-light” model, as it collected most of its orders from already popular social media platforms such as WeChat or food delivery app such as Meituan.
However, the company is now also expanding its offline presence to gain more recognition among coffee consumers.
The newly-raised funds will be used to build 500 bricks-and-mortar coffee stores by the end of the year, according to Coffee Box. It had 100 at the end of 2017.
Luckin, which just closed its Series B+ round at USD 150 million, has already filed for an initial public offering in the US to gain more funds to help it keep expanding. It has 2,730 stores in 28 cities in China, according to its SEC filings.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company.
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Editor: Nadine Freischlad