Gegejia.com, a global food importer and provider targeting the female market, announced on Thursday that it secured tens of millions of RMB in Series A financing. The round of financing was led by Xiaomi-backed Shunwei Capital, followed by Matrix Partners China and ZhenFund.
The company said the funding will be used to improve their supply chain and further explore their cross-border e-commerce business model.
In 2015, the company landed several Japanese food companies as agents, and also developed direct mail and fast delivery services for perishable food. This year, the company plans to create more direct services with food companies in Europe and America.
Gegejia.com launched its app in 2015. According to data from the tech news site ctsbw.com, the app has two million users so far. 90% of them are women and 75% range between the ages of 25 and 35. Its sales in January 2016 exceeded RMB 20 million (USD 3.06 million).
The female-targeted market has a lot of room to grow in China. According to a report on China’s online shopping habits released by iResearch.cn in 2014, more than 30% of online shoppers shopped online over 40 times a year in 2013, and among those people, the proportion of female was 20% higher than that of male.
Besides Alibaba dominates e-commerce market with the help of its online marketplaces Taobao.com and Tmall.com, which attract many female customers. To compete for larger market share, two of the largest female-oriented e-commerce platforms Mogujie.com and Meilishuo.com merged in January 2016.
Founded in 2011, Mogujie.com provides young women with trendy clothes, shoes, bags and accessories. Users can share their shopping experience and recommendations on the website. Meilishuo.com was founded in 2009. It provides similar services as Mogujie.com. More than 100 million female members ranging from 18 to 35 years old registered on the website, says its official site.
(Top photo from Baidu Images)
