Another round of financing has settled.

On July 15, some media reported that Chongqing Yichong Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Yichong Technology") completed hundreds of millions of yuan in strategic financing. The investor is Tianjin Ruipu, a leader in the animal health products industry. Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Rip Biotechnology").

In this regard, the public relations director of Yichong Technology brand told "Pet Industry Light Year" that the financing incident is true. The fundamental reason why Yichong Technology chose to cooperate with Rip Biotech this time is that Yichong Technology has long been focusing on the development of the pet field and constantly tries to integrate industrial resources to extend and complete Yichong's service chain. "It just so happened that Rip was also paying attention to the pet field and found that we were a company with good strength and room for development, so we hit it off immediately."

As for the specific financing amount and shareholding ratio, Yichong Technology Brand Public Relations Director Expressing inconvenience to disclose.

It is reported that this financing will be mainly used for the creation of Yichong Technology’s self-developed brand, the upgrading of the supply chain, the offline expansion of front-end business and the construction of pet medical digital information. For Ruipu Biotechnology, it can use the channels of Yichong Technology to promote its own products and services; for Ruipai Pets, through cooperation with Yichong Technology, it can establish and open up a strong drug supply chain for Ruipai Pet Medical System. , to provide pets with more high-quality products and services; for Yichong Technology, the most direct benefit is the increase in income channels.

Public information shows that Yichong Technology was founded in 2008. It is a group company that provides omni-channel operation and management services for pet brands. It owns the industry-renowned pet product consumption and selection platform-E Chong, Chong. Store empowerment platform - Taipin, and domestic and overseas brand online operation management platform - Hangzhou Yichong.

According to public information, Yichong Technology’s last round of financing was in 2020. Liangjiang Venture Capital and Xinhe Group conducted a B+ round of financing for Yichong Technology.

In recent years, the pet e-commerce track has been controversial. Boqi Pet, the first domestic pet e-commerce company, has been losing money for consecutive years, and even after going public, it has not been able to escape the loss-making situation. At the same time, the stock price and market value of Boqi Pets are also far different from when they were listed. The closing share price of Boqi Pets on its first day of listing was US$7.2, with a total market value of US$653 million. The stock price reached $12.80 in December last year and has been falling ever since. As of press time, Boqi Pet's share price was US$1.89, with a total market value of US$28.8739 million.

Rip Biotech is a high-tech enterprise serving the animal health industry. Its main business areas are veterinary raw materials, pharmaceutical preparations (chemical drugs, traditional Chinese veterinary drugs, disinfectants, etc.), veterinary biological products, R&D, production, and sales of veterinary functional additives and provision of overall animal disease prevention and control solutions.

The company has 16 branches (subsidiaries), 10 veterinary drug GMP production bases, 83 production lines, and 500 veterinary drug product approval numbers, involving pigs, chickens, waterfowl, cattle, sheep and pets. It is one of the largest veterinary drug companies in China with the most comprehensive range of products, including medicines, vaccines, disinfectants, cleaning agents and functional additives. It is also a national vaccine manufacturer for the prevention and control of major animal diseases.

< p>Rip Biotech’s 2021 annual report shows that the company achieved pet business revenue of approximately 26 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.7%. Ruipu Biotechnology has a high-quality pet pharmaceutical product matrix that is in line with international standards. It has been used in 9 disease fields including antibacterial, antimycoplasma, antiviral, circulatory system, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, antiparasitic, surgical anesthesia, decontamination and nutritional health care. It has more than 20 categories of pet pharmaceutical products covering 8 dosage forms. At the same time, the company has proactively laid out products in the fields of pet vaccines, pet therapeutic drugs, pet diagnostic reagents, pet nutrition and health, and continued to invest in research and development.

In 2015, Rip Biotech entered the pet medical field by investing in Ripai Pet Hospital. In the following years, Rip Biotech increased its holdings in Ripai Pets many times. In December 2019, Ruipai Pets also received Series C financing from Mars Group. Public information shows that as of now, Ruipai Pet Hospital has more than 500 high-end pet hospitals in 65 cities across the country, and its annual revenue growth rate remains at 60-80%.

Currently, there are 64 shareholders behind Ruipai Pets, including Mars Wrigley Candy (China) Co., Ltd., Tianjin Ruipu Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and Nanjing Ruilian Emerging Industry Investment Fund Partnership, with a valuation of over 100 100 million.

In March this year, the Secretary of the Board of Directors of Ruipai Biotech responded to a question on the investor relations platform: "Ruipai Pets is a joint-stock company of Ruipai Biotech and holds 9.45% of the equity. It is not part of Ruipai Biotech. Within the scope of the consolidated statement; the net profit in 2021 will be over 100 million, and the profit situation is good.”

In early May, there was news in the market that Ruipai Pets would be listed in Hong Kong. "Pet Industry Lightyear" once called the office of the secretary of the board of directors of Ruipai Biology, the listed company behind Ruipai Pets. The other party said: "There is an arrangement, but the details have not been implemented yet. They should be doing preliminary preparations.

< p>As of press time, Rip Biotech has not disclosed any announcement about its cooperation with Yichong Technology.

The following is the previous in-depth study of the pet e-commerce company Yichong Technology by "Pet Industry Light Year":

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01

Star Startup Company

Yi Chong Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2008. It is a group company that provides omni-channel operation and management services for pet brands. It has The industry's well-known pet product consumption and selection platform - E Chong, the pet store empowerment platform - Tapin, and the online operation and management platform for domestic and overseas brands - Hangzhou Yichong

Yichong was once very popular. Attention from all walks of life.

Since the first angel round financing of Yichong Technology in 2014, it has been favored by capital for five consecutive years, including many investors with state-owned background.

In 2015, Chenhui Venture Capital and Detong Capital participated in the A-round financing; in 2016, Yichong Technology continued to deepen its development in the vertical field of pet e-commerce, and received participation from Shenzhen Venture Capital, Guohai Capital, and Yongchuang Capital. A+ round of financing, and determined to expand into the global pet consumer market; in 2017, it was recognized by IDG Capital and participated in the B round of financing. In 2018, Cointreau Investment and Qianhai Fund of Funds participated in the B round of financing; in 2020, Liangjiang Venture Capital, Xinhe Group conducted a B+ round of financing for Yichong Technology.

In January this year, the first meeting of the 19th People’s Congress of Beibei District, Chongqing opened. Wang Gang, co-founder of Yichong Technology, spoke at the National People’s Congress. Attended the meeting as a representative.

According to the official website, one year after the launch of E-pet Mall, sales reached the first place in Chongqing. By December 2013, E-pet sales ranked first in the West. , E-Pet Mall has become a well-known pet retail store in China, with sales exceeding 40 million.

The official website states that E-Pet Mall is currently the industry's largest B2C pet industry selection platform, through big data intelligence. The application serves four million pet-raising users and has won honorary titles such as "The Most Influential Vertical E-commerce Company in 2018"

Shancheng Daily published an article last year saying that the independent e-commerce platform under Yichong Technology has daily activity. More than 140,000, with more than 30 flagship stores on mainstream e-commerce platforms, and the annual sales volume of a single brand has jumped from one million to 100 million within three years.

02

The giant is coming

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The rise of Yi Chong has caught up with the good times of the vertical e-commerce track.

Since 2010, vertical e-commerce in various market segments has sprung up, such as cosmetics e-commerce platform Jumei Youpin, luxury e-commerce platform Secoo, etc. As time goes by and the media changes, some vertical e-commerce companies are gradually declining. Jumei Youpin has been delisted, women's fashion e-commerce companies have also begun to lay off employees, and Vanke's official website has also been closed.

Data from Yibang Power shows that 36 vertical e-commerce companies have closed down in the first eight months of 2021, including former primary markets such as Yiersan, Tongcheng Life, Global.com, and Zhaoyou.com. Hot target.

The situation of vertical pet e-commerce does not seem to be optimistic.

In fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2022, Boqi Pet’s revenue was 1.011 billion yuan and 1.186 billion yuan respectively, with net losses of 193 million yuan and 133 million yuan in the same period. Until the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022, Boqi Pets was still in a loss-making situation, with a net loss of 22.2 million yuan.

In addition to losses, the stock price and market value of Boqi Pets are also far different from when they were listed.

In terms of Yichong, in May this year, "Pet Industry Light Year" reported that the equity changes in Chongqing Yichong Technology Co., Ltd. Chongqing Detong Pilot Venture Capital Center (Limited Partnership), which has a Chongqing state-owned background, (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Chongqing Detong") is suspected of withdrawing from the ranks of shareholders of Yichong Technology. State-owned shareholders responded that they had only withdrawn part of the money.

In March 2021, an article on the official website of Epet Mall showed that in 2020, the annual transaction volume of Epet Mall reached 1.3 billion yuan.

In April 2022, the "Liangjiang Industrial Investment Group" public account published an article saying, "Nearly one million pet users chose E-Pet throughout 2021, with a total transaction volume of 1.35 billion yuan, an increase of more than 50% %.

Nowadays, comprehensive e-commerce is aggressively deploying the pet track.

The 2022 JD Pets 618 Ultimate Battle Report shows that as of 24:00 on June 18, JD Pets ranked top 4. The hourly turnover exceeded that of the whole day on June 18 last year; the number of brands with a turnover of over 10 million increased 5 times year-on-year; the number of single products with a turnover over 1 million increased 6 times year-on-year.

During Tmall 618 in 2022. , pet brand membership growth is strong, and member transaction volume during the 618 period increased by nearly 50% year-on-year.

On June 30, "Pet Industry Lightyear" searched the E-pet Mall Tmall flagship store and found that the number of fans of the store. The number of fans of the same type of Boqi Pets Tmall flagship store is 1.57 million.

E Pet Mall’s flagship store on JD.com has 35,000 fans, and the Boqi Pets official flagship store has 1.10 million fans. Thousands of people are paying attention.

"Pet Industry Light Year" noticed that Yichong tried to increase sales by embracing new e-commerce models.

In March last year, Yichong Technology conducted a live broadcast. Peng Jian, the person in charge of e-commerce, said in an interview that since June 2020, Yichong has tested the live broadcast e-commerce, and its revenue has reached 10 million yuan. Although the gross profit is about 20%, the overall figure is slightly lower after including various expenses. There is a loss. The reason is that it is not professional enough in the live broadcast e-commerce sector, and the products still need to be adjusted. In the past, it has only sold standard products at very transparent prices. Next, it will make some non-standard products and private brands.

< p>However, Yi Chong did not give up.

In August 2021, E Pet Mall entered the Weiya live broadcast room for a small pet show. Orijen's original hunting and craving cat food was replenished multiple times and sold out in seconds. More than 8,000 pieces of cat food were sold out, and the transaction volume in 3 hours reached 3.83 million, setting a new record in the history of live streaming in the pet industry, and creating the first place in a single store, a single brand, and a single product. < /p>

"Pet Industry Light Years" contacted nearly 20 pet owners, and most of them said they didn't know much about vertical pet e-commerce. Four consumers said they had made purchases at E-Pet Mall. A reporter told "Pet Industry Light Year" that it is more cost-effective to buy products when there are flash sales on E-pet Mall, and the products are cheaper than in flagship stores.

Does vertical pet e-commerce have a future? Research from Beijing International Trade Center. Lai Yang, chief expert of the base, believes that it is difficult to develop vertical pet e-commerce.

Lai Yang told "Pet Industry Light Year" that when shopping, consumers often choose products such as JD.com and Tmall. A variety of choices of platforms. If used separately, consumers will have narrower choices, and consumers will be less motivated to download vertical e-commerce apps. This is the biggest problem.

Lai Yang. He said that Dangdang, which was very popular in selling books in the past, has now given way to a comprehensive platform. The same goes for pet e-commerce. The concept and idea are good, but it is difficult to implement in practice. For example, merchants may not necessarily be willing to cooperate with vertical platforms, which in turn will result in the platform being less rich than comprehensive e-commerce platforms. For consumers, there are many consumers who keep pets, but there are relatively few who specialize in pet e-commerce. They still prefer comprehensive e-commerce when consuming. This is a consumption habit.

Lai Yang believes that it is relatively difficult for vertical e-commerce companies to survive. This is a rule.

Relevant people from Yichong Technology told "Pet Industry Light Years" that vertical e-commerce can realize user operations in a more refined manner and improve users' convenience in specific usage scenarios. The comprehensive e-commerce service is Comprehensive users cannot be specifically subdivided into pet users. The usage preferences and shopping pain points of pet users can be better solved in Epet; secondly, as a team that has been deeply involved in the pet industry for more than ten years, we have a deep understanding of pets and pet users. The understanding and control of needs will be more detailed. The control and satisfaction of emotional needs, circle needs, and professional needs are the core advantages of E-pet that form business barriers and brand premium points.

Relevant people from Yichong Technology said that the comprehensive e-commerce is huge, and it is inevitable that there will be uneven quality in product procurement and after-sales processing. However, E Chong has always adhered to the user first principle from the supply chain to after-sales processing. Since its establishment, we have had a team independent of the business to make supply chain management judgments and select products carefully rather than based on market trends.

03

Not just e-commerce

"Pet Industry Light Years" noticed that Yi Chong's attention is not only focused on e-commerce.

Previously, Yu Zhen, the founder of Yichong Technology, said in an interview that after 2015, Yichong Technology launched an overseas market and platform strategy. On the one hand, it introduced overseas mid-to-high-end brands into the country to help them Carry out marketing, promotion and channels in the domestic market. At the same time, we have also fully launched the going-out model to bring domestic high-quality brands to overseas markets.

Around 2015, “Taipin” was born.

According to the official website, it provides pet merchants with high-quality supplies at home and abroad, directly to the sales terminal. At the same time, it also provides merchants with a series of comprehensive service support such as store operations and supply chain finance, focusing on supply services.

According to data, Taipin has become an exclusive empowerment platform for pet consumption offline stores. It has 162 agent brands around the world and more than 50,000 cooperative stores, covering more than 200 cities across the country.

So far, there is E-pet Mall online and other products offline. Y-pet has completed the preliminary layout of online and offline channels.

In 2017, Yichong decided to transform its online e-commerce platform into a professional solution platform.

In terms of brand empowerment, Yichong not only established Sheguo Culture, but also invested with Shanghai Yuanchong Industrial Co., Ltd. to establish Shanghai Letu Pet Products Co., Ltd., which is mainly engaged in brand agency operation and brand empowerment.

According to the official website, Letu Pets’ total empowered GMV exceeded 10 million in less than a month after its establishment.

In the past two years, Yichong Technology has made continuous moves in terms of services.

In September 2021, Yichong and Youyu reached a cooperation. Zhang Shoukun, vice president of retail of Yichong Technology, said that Yichong will use its own omni-channel resources to strive to help Youyu open up the domestic market as soon as possible.

In December of the same year, Yichong Technology and NetEase Yanxuan signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Sheguo Culture, a subsidiary of Yichong Technology, will give full play to the advantages of technology-oriented brand integrated marketing to help NetEase Yanxuan in the new consumer brand track. rapid development.

The above-mentioned Peng Jian said at the time that Yichong, as an old e-commerce company established in 2008, is a benchmark company in the industry and has achieved a leading position in the country in the b2c and offline b2b sectors. The main business is divided into three major sectors: agency for foreign pet food, toys and other consumables; online self-owned mall; offline b2b business. The three major segments each account for about 30% of the overall revenue, and the business form is stable, with revenue reaching 1.2 billion yuan in 2020.

In addition, Yichong Technology has incubated a number of its own brands by investing in pet food, nutritional products, and supplies research and development centers: "Jixin", "Little Blue Shark", SmartTail, 0 Degrees of Gray, TOUCHDOG etc., covering pet snacks, pet food, pet supplies, etc.

Senior Internet observer Ding Daoshi told "Pet Industry Light Years" that although the overall development momentum of vertical pet e-commerce is slightly lower than that of comprehensive e-commerce, he still Very optimistic about vertical pet e-commerce. He believes that vertical pet e-commerce will move toward a service-focused development form in the future.

He said, "Pet e-commerce is not only a platform for pet food, clothing, and use. Consumers also have more needs for it, such as pet birthdays, education, etc. This system is very big. So If vertical pet e-commerce companies launch adapted products and provide good services based on these needs of pet owners, there may be development opportunities."

Relevant people from Yichong Technology told "Pet Industry Light Year" that there will be opportunities in the future. Give full play to service advantages and increase brand premium space. Adhere to the strict selection of the supply chain, expand the supply chain through a global buyer team, and truly select pet products worth buying for users.