Rhea Liu
Campus-focused O2O service providers are a popular sector among investors in China this year. This week, two of the top service providers, Zhai.me and Xiaohehe, both announced big rounds of funding. Zhai.me has received USD 35 million in financing from one of China’s biggest O2O service providers, Meituan and, Xiaohehe has received a few dozen million RMB and gained logistical support from supermarket chain Darunfa. AllChinaTech.com explores three companies setting the standard for excellence in the sector.
59store
59store focuses on online grocery deliveries to campuses. By hiring student representatives, 59store is able to deliver between nine o’clock and eleven o’clock at night, the peak demand time for students based on sales history. Reports suggest that by August, 59 Store reached 2000 schools with over 100,000 transactions per day.
Last month, 59store claimed they received RMB 200 million in pre-series B funding from investors, including A-series investor Shenzhen Capital Group. With the investment, 59store will further develop its supply chain, increase recruitment and expand its consumer finance platform.
Zhai.me (Otaku Fans)
Zhai.me’s business model is very similar to 59store but it has no limit on its business hours. Zhai.me also hires college students as sales representatives, who in turn use their dorms for warehousing instead of establishing their own storage space, enabling them to greatly reduce delivery times. Zhai.me claims to covers 70 cities and 800 schools with about 200,000 active daily users.
Zhai.me is the hotshot of the capital markets this year. After launching last December, it received an Angel Investment in March, its A-series in April, its A+ series in May and a USD 35 million B-round this month from Chinese O2O giant Meituan.
Meanwhile, they’re also collaborating with Fenqile (Fenqile), one of the major players in the Chinese consumer finance sector to explore other possibilities for the company.
The CEO of Zhai.me was also one of the co-founders of 59 Store.
Xiaohehe (School Giggle)
Xiaohehe is also a location-based online grocery service provider. Xiaohehe has its own storage space and logistics operation. Focusing on second and third tier cities, Xiaohehe has already built over 100 storage houses around 200 campuses, which has allowed them to boost their daily transactions tenfold to 30,000 with an average per customer transaction of 15 RMB, according to Xiaohehe’s CEO Lin Yining.
This week, Xiaohehe received a strategic investment from supermarket chain Darunfa which will enhance Xiaohehe’s logistics setup, allowing Xiaohehe to have a more stable supply chain at lower cost. The strategic collaboration between Xiaohehe and Darunfa also indicates new possibilities for cooperation between traditional retailing businesses and online services.
