Kuafood, a Chinese restaurant chain focusing on fried skewers, has secured 500 million yuan ($69.5 million) in a Series B financing round co-led by China-based venture capital firm Joy Capital.
Juele Fund, an investment vehicle set up by retail snack chain Juewei Food and Alibaba-backed food delivery platform Ele.me, also led the round, according to a release on Tuesday.
Shenzhen-registered Buer Capital and Hong Kong-based Meridian Capital have participated in the round.
Founded in 2018 by Yuan Zelu, who previously co-founded Chinese hamburger chain Bingz, Kuafood took inspiration from Leshan-style skewers that have since grown into over 2,000 food shops across China and over 30 overseas outlets located across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Italy, the firm claimed.
Previously, the firm secured 150 million yuan ($23.3 million) via three fundraising rounds in 2021, counting Jinding Capital and Joy Capital among some of its existing backers.
The fresh funding comes at a time when the country’s once-hot consumer sector endured the coldest fundraising winter in 2023.
The consumer goods and services sector saw 589 startups raise $2.7 billion in 2023, an eight-year-low in both deal count and deal value, according to PitchBook data.
The annual deal value for 2023 was way below the record funding in 2021 and 2018 at $20.3 billion and $21 billion respectively. In 2022, 864 privately owned firms in the consumer sector raised $3.9 billion.
