喜茶即將達成新一輪融資

Heytea, one of China’s largest tea beverage chains, is reportedly closing a new round of financing which will valuate the business north of RMB 16 billion ($2.3 billion), up from its last valuation of RMB 9 billion in July.

喜茶，中國最大的茶飲品連鎖店之一，據(jù)說即將達成新一輪融資，這將使喜茶的估價從去年7月的90億人民幣攀升至到160億人民幣(23億美元)。

Why it matters: Beverage categories are blurring in China with bubble tea chains Heytea and Naixue’s Tea competing head-on with coffee giants like Starbucks and Luckin Coffee.

為什么這很重要：中國飲品分類的界限正變得模糊，奶茶連鎖店喜茶和奈雪的茶正與星巴克和瑞幸咖啡等咖啡巨頭正面競爭。

Heytea rival Naixue’s Tea is reportedly gearing up for a $400 million initial public offering in the US.

據(jù)報道，喜茶的對手奈雪的茶正準備在美以4億美元的市值進行首次公開募股。

Heytea pioneered the digitization of Chinese beverage chains by leveraging social apps like WeChat.

喜茶充分利用微信等社交軟件，開創(chuàng)了中國飲品連鎖店的數(shù)字化。

Beverage chains are feeling the pinch as a result of a significant drop in business due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and venture capitalists are assessing top players better positioned to weather the epidemic thanks to business scale.

飲品連鎖店正由于Covid-19爆發(fā)導致的營業(yè)額大幅下跌而感到經(jīng)濟困難。風險投資家正評估那些頂級企業(yè)。多虧生意規(guī)模大，這些企業(yè)才能做好更充足的準備，順利度過這次大流行病。

Heytea’s new funding round was led by global Asia-focused private equity firm Hillhouse Capital and Coatue Management, the US fund behind mobility titans including Didi, Lyft, and Grab, local media reported. The size of the investment was not disclosed.

當?shù)孛襟w報道，喜茶的新一輪融資由重心在亞洲的全球私人股本公司高瓴資本(Hillhouse Capital)和Coatue Management(蔻圖資本管理公司)領投。滴滴、Lyft和Grab等移動出行巨頭幕后的資本就是Coatue這家美國公司。

Heytea is now operating 450 stores in upwards of 35 cities in China and four stores in Singapore. The company has amassed 21.5 million users on its WeChat mini-app as of 2019. Of the total, 15.8 million were newly added during the year.

喜茶目前在中國35個城市里經(jīng)營450家門店，在新加坡還有4家門店。2019年，這家公司在微信小程序上聚集了2150萬用戶。其中1580萬用戶都是去年新加入的。