Source: Meicai, an online marketplace in China for vegetables and more, has raised about $800M, led by Hillhouse Capital and Tiger Global, at a $7B valuation
Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg : Tweets: @technology , @tekkamana , @jasonlk , and @luluyilun Tweets: @technology : A Chinese rocket scientist's startup that helps farmers sell vegetables to restaurants has raised at least $600 million. @LuluYilun reports http://www.bloomberg.com/... Andrew Lai / @tekkamana : Wow, $7bn USD val up from 2.8Bn in January after being founded in 2014. Classified as an #agtech with real revenue: “As of the end of last year, Meicai served close to a 100 cities revenue had surpassed 10 billion yuan.” http://twitter.com/... Jason M. Lemkin / @jasonlk : My LPs laugh at my markups when they compare to their China funds http://twitter.com/... Lulu Yilun Chen / @luluyilun : Scoop36-year-old rocket scientist's veggie-sourcing startup Meicai is said to hit $7 billion valuation, attracting Tiger Global and Hillhouse as co-lead investors http://www.bloomberg.com/... @pelstrom @Robert_Fenner @edwininla
Context & Ripple Effects
Nine months after a $450M Series E at a $2.8B valuation, Meicai has more than doubled its mark with a round of about $800M led by Hillhouse Capital and Tiger Global. Founded in 2014 by a rocket scientist, the company reported serving close to 100 cities with revenue past 10 billion yuan by the end of last year — real transaction volume in a category often filed under #agtech.
The raise lands in a corridor of China food-platform financings the coverage has tracked for years: Ele.me's $630M round at a $3B valuation in 2015, Meituan's rise to a $28B raise in 2017, and now the supply side of restaurants getting priced.
First-order effects
- Hillhouse Capital and Tiger Global take lead positions in a $7B-valued farm-to-restaurant marketplace that already claims revenue across nearly 100 Chinese cities.
- The ~$800M gives Meicai fresh capital to extend the farmer-to-restaurant procurement network it has built since 2014.
Second-order effects
- The re-rating from $2.8B to $7B in nine months pressures other China food-supply startups to raise on similar momentum before terms tighten, and hands Tiger Global a template for chasing revenue-backed agtech deals.
- Restaurant-facing platforms like Meituan Dianping — which was raising $3B+ at a $28B valuation a year earlier — now see investors pricing the supply chain feeding their merchant base, not just consumer demand.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, China's fresh-produce distribution consolidates around venture-backed intermediaries that own the farmer-to-restaurant pipe, financed heavily by US dollar funds — echoing how the group-buying and delivery waves produced Meituan and Ele.me, including Meituan's own $700M raise at a $7B valuation back in 2015.
The trend: Cross-border capital is re-rating China's farm-to-restaurant supply chain platforms in months rather than years, extending the food-delivery funding wave upstream to farmers.