Baidu, Taikang Life Insurance Lead USD 200 Mln Series C in E-tailer Womai
Tencent Finance, 10/12/15
Chinese state-owned food manufacturer and cross-border food and oil merchant COFCO Corporation, operator of fresh food B2C e-commerce site Womai, recently announced that it has completed USD 200 mln Series C funding led by Chinese Internet company Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Taikang Life Insurance. Womai will use this funding to develop its refrigerated logistics and third party delivery capabilities, and will also enter into a strategic partnership with Baidu and Taikang. Womai is preparing for a capital market listing sometime in 2016 or 2017.
Womai's management team will remain in place after this round of funding. COFCO board chairman Frank Ning will continue to serve as Womai's board chairman, and COFCO assistant to the president Zhang Dongfeng will remain Womai's executive deputy board chairman. Womai CEO Zhao Pingyuan will be responsible for operations.
Womai mainly sells COFCO food and beverage products, and also sells food and daily necessity products from other Chinese and foreign brands. The company operates food product storage centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and serves 142 cities, using its own fully-refrigerated logistics chain and third-party delivery services to deliver goods in 48 hours or less.
Womai's 2015 sales have been forecast to reach approximately RMB 2 bln, roughly unchanged from the company's sales in 2014. Analysts say that several factors may be responsible for this, including: 1) the industry is currently in a period of investment and reorganization; 2) fresh food storage and delivery costs are high; 3) as a subsidiary of COFCO, Womai has some state-owned enterprise characteristics.
Womai was established in 2008 and previously completed two rounds of funding.
Editor's note: For more information on this topic, please see "Womai Completes USD 100 Mln Series B," MD 8/01/14 and "Womai Lands USD Eight-Digit Funding," MD 7/22/13 issues.
Keywords: Zhang Dongfeng Zhao Pingyuan e-commerce Internet funding B2C Baidu BIDU Womai COFCO fresh food Taikang Life Insurance Frank Ning B2C M&A Series C
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