In 2022, the layout of Lanzhou beef noodles by various capitals continues. Recently, the main operating company of Lanzhou beef noodle brand majiyong, Shanghai Huaqiao Catering Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Huaqiao), underwent industrial and commercial changes, and the shareholders added Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd., with the registered capital increasing to about 1.6044 million yuan, an increase of about 13.48%. It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time Tencent has taken a stake in noodle brands. Before that, Tencent investment has taken a stake in Hefu Laomian twice, which is behind the investment boom of pasta track. 2021 can be said to be a year when capital is hot on the pasta track. According to the statistics of the daily economic news, there were at least eight pasta financing events in 2021, and the total amount disclosed exceeded 1.3 billion yuan. Zhu danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, said: pasta is a traditional mainstream catering category in China, but there is relatively large room for innovation and upgrading and iteration. The integrity of the supply chain, the stability of quality, the guarantee of food safety and the improvement of brand tone all test the core ability of the sustainable development of emerging brands. Capital battle of pasta track On the surface, Ma Jiyong operates Lanzhou ramen, but it is not a Lanzhou brand. According to aiqicha, Shanghai Huaqiao was established in July 2019 with a registered capital of about 1.6 million yuan. At present, Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd. is the fifth largest shareholder, with a shareholding ratio of 8.7%. Source: aiqicha At present, Shanghai Huaqiao has invested and established more than 20 catering companies in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places. In May 2021, Ma Jiyong obtained Angel round financing. The investment institutions include Challenger capital, Xianfeng capital, Kaihui capital, Gaorong capital and Sequoia Capital. Among them, Sequoia Capital also submitted an investment letter of intent with a valuation of more than 1 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that in the past two years, many Lanzhou Ramen brands have risen, including Chen Xianggui, Ma Jiyong, Zhang Lala and so on. They are not local brands in Lanzhou. It is understood that most of these brands take the medium and high-end route, choose shopping centers and office buildings, and integrate the national tide elements popular with young consumer groups in store decoration, with a price of about 30 yuan. Source: public comments In terms of products, Ma Jiyong not only retains the classic product beef ramen, but also adds northwest characteristic delicacies such as kebabs, cold dishes, roujiamo and so on. One of the biggest features of Ma Jiyong is free noodles, which is considered to be the "biggest innovation" in Lanzhou Ramen category. In fact, Lanzhou ramen, a sub category, has been favored by capital in recent two years. In addition to Ma Jiyong, Chen Xianggui and Zhang Lala all obtained financing in 2021. In July 2021, Chen Xianggui's round a financing of more than 100 million yuan was led by zhengxingu capital, followed by Yunjiu capital, and the old shareholder source capital and angel investor song huanping again, with a valuation of nearly 1 billion yuan. In December 2021, Zhang Lala announced the completion of round B financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, led by CICC cultural consumption fund under CICC capital, and followed by Jinshajiang venture capital and Shengjing Jiacheng. According to the data of an organization, in the first half of 2021, there were 12 financing cases of pasta track, with a total amount of 1.011 billion yuan. In the long run, since 2014, 16 brands of pasta track have obtained financing, with a total of 36 financing events, with a total amount of more than 1.978 billion yuan, In terms of the number of stores, as of December 21 last year, Zhang Lala had signed a total of 100 stores nationwide; By the end of October last year, Chen Xianggui had more than 200 direct stores across the country (including those that have signed contracts to open). According to the report of blindly research in early 2022, the number of stores in majiyong is 81, of which the number of stores to be opened is 57. From this point of view, a new round of Lanzhou Ramen war may have begun. Tencent fights in the catering industry In this pasta war, investing in Ma Jiyong is not Tencent's first "war". Before investing in Ma Jiyong, Tencent participated in two consecutive rounds of investment in Hefu Laomian in 2020 and 2021. In the public's impression, Tencent's investment preference in the past mainly focused on the Internet and science and technology. In fact, Tencent has focused on the offline catering field in recent years. In addition to pasta, in the field of coffee and tea, Tencent has participated in Xi tea, TIMS China and algebraist algebras; In addition, Tencent also took a stake in shengxiangting, a "wanghong" hot brine brand. In recent years, the wind of the Internet has blown offline, and offline catering has become a popular track. As an indispensable part of new consumption, the Internet giants represented by Tencent have made great efforts in the layout of the catering industry. According to the data of an organization, in the first eight months of 2021, the investment of Internet giants in catering new consumption track exceeded 7.156 billion yuan, up to 31 times. Tencent has also responded the fastest to the sub circuit of offline catering, with a total of 8 shots in the field of new catering consumption, of which 7 are concentrated in 2021. Specifically, in July 2021, Tencent participated in the investment of happy tea, with a total amount of 3.308 billion yuan; The new coffee projects include "tims China" and "algebraist"; In addition, Tencent also invested in Hefu Laomian and Shengxiang Pavilion. According to a data research institute, Tencent prefers to choose chain brands and head projects, or has the expectation of "WanDian brand" for the invested projects. In fact, in addition to Tencent, the giants have racked their brains to try to get out of the circle in the investment of new catering consumption. For example, byte beating in liquor and restaurant retail exploration; Meituan focuses on two tracks: pasta and new coffee; Station B has a younger track layout to create a new mode of IP + catering. Obviously, Internet giants want to reach deeper and younger people through catering. Making money through new catering consumption is not so important in the short term, and the catering industry also hopes to complete its expansion with the help of capital. In the view of insiders, capital and catering complement each other. The investment preference of capital will affect the development trend of catering, while catering rooted in the flow brought by the crowd will feed back capital. Is the big guy's cross-border catering "really fragrant" As for the cross-border catering industry, there was once a passage that went to the Mercedes Benz 4S store for wine, Chanel for dessert, burberry for coffee, Versace for hotel and Armani for apartment. The story is that major enterprises have extended olive branches to catering, including: Mercedes Benz launched Mercedes me restaurant; MUJI creates a "vegetarian food" restaurant; Moby bike and Wagas create a "Moby bike theme restaurant"; Chanel launched "coco cafe" flash cafe; Ma Yun and Costa launched Apsara cafe, etc. In addition to some strong capital forces, many industry leaders are also cross-border catering. As a once influential figure in the real estate industry, Mao Daqing was affectionately called "brother Qingqing" by the outside world. In 2015, Mao Daqing left Vanke and established a joint office space "Youke workshop". Source: microblog In September 2021, a shop called "maodaqing steamed stuffed bun shop" quietly opened. Subsequently, Mao Daqing repeatedly called the steamed stuffed bun shop on his microblog, attached the address and link, and the steamed stuffed bun shop began to become popular. Mao Daqing's opening of baozi shop is considered to be an important attempt of Youke workshop from end B to end C. Prior to this, Youke factory announced the acquisition of Beijing catering brand "xiaosushi" at a valuation of 100 million yuan. The two sides will further layout the daily material market by covering white-collar working meals, conference meals, afternoon tea and so on. Of course, Mao Daqing is not the "initiator" of the "re entrepreneurship" of capital leaders involved in the catering industry. In August 2021, Lu Zhengyao, the founder of Ruixing coffee, also attracted much attention for his latest venture. After the founding of Shenzhou car rental and Ruixing coffee, Lu Zhengyao fought again in the catering industry and established "fun noodles". On August 8, 2021, quxiaomian opened simultaneously in Beijing and Chongqing. After three months of operation, "Qu Xiaomian" was renamed "Qu Bayu". It is reported that Lu Zhengyao's goal is to open 500 small noodle restaurants across the country, expand to snack brands in the future, and gradually upgrade to an online food app. Similar to Lu Zhengyao, Li Tuchun, founder of Prince milk brand, founded "pinquanqianwei food company", which also has "ambition". On April 25, 2021, the Hongyuan store in Kaifu District of pinquanqianwei founded by Li Tuchun opened in Changsha. This is his dual identity as the spokesperson and founder of the chain brand of "pinquanqianwei food company". Li Tuchun said that it will take three to five years to create another "KFC" and "McDonald's" of Chinese people, all of which are nutritious food, and strive to enter the top 500 food enterprises. Different from the above two people, Wang Boming, chairman of the board of directors of Lianban media group, started a restaurant, which is more derived from his hobbies and feelings. Source: public comments Wang Boming was one of the first batch of foreign students in China. After obtaining a master of law from Columbia University, he worked in the New York Stock Exchange for some time. After working, Wang Boming, who has been in the United States for seven years, has developed a hobby - eating steak. In 2019, Wang Boming and his friends jointly opened a steakhouse in Sanlitun - wofgang Steakhouse Beijing Huamao store, and became the Chinese partner of wofgang steakhouse. It is from his love and persistence that Wolfgang can successfully land in the Chinese market. Careful study found that the original intention of cross-border catering of these major enterprises and industry leaders is different. However, whether it is to cross the border for traffic, transformation or profit, the catering industry has intensified the competition in the industry. Insiders pointed out that whether it is traditional catering or cross-border catering, the reshuffle of competition will accelerate the iteration and elimination of brands. If traditional thinking diners still stand "in place" and think about problems, they will one day be eliminated by cross-border catering. Han Ming, President of China Hotel Association, has publicly said that in the future, the catering industry is not only as simple as traditional eating and drinking, but also a platform industry with basic functions of catering services + theme culture + consumption experience. Cross border cooperation and cross-border development will become a common practice. From the current situation, cross-border catering in many industries actually coexists with failure and success. It is not easy for enterprises to open up a new blue ocean in the increasingly competitive catering market. (Mustang Finance)