Nowwa Coffee secures the largest annual financing in the catering industry

The investment community has learned that NOWWA COFFEE has completed a Series C financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, jointly invested by a number of well - known investment institutions, including Legend Capital, Shengwang Fund, Huaying Capital, Challenger Capital, Yuanxing Capital, and GSR Ventures. It is reported that this is the largest financing in the Chinese catering industry in the past year.

A month ago, NOWWA announced that the number of its stores had exceeded 10,000, ranking it among the top echelon of global coffee chain brands. By dissecting, the outside world can see that NOWWA has established a unique and steadily growing path with scarce differentiation in the Chinese and even global markets.

Looking at the Chinese coffee market, Luckin's comeback, Cotti's rapid expansion, Xingyun Kafei's penetration into the lower - tier markets, and NOWWA's innovation are all unique new species emerging from the Chinese business environment. The once - quiet coffee industry has become bustling again.

A Benchmark Coffee Financing with Well - known VCs Gathering

In retrospect, NOWWA's rise was a bit unexpected.

In June 2019, a small coffee shop of more than ten square meters opened in Changning District, Shanghai, named NOWWA, which represents "NOWADAYS - right at this moment", meaning "to provide customers with a good cup of coffee anytime and anywhere".

However, for a long time, NOWWA was not prominent in the highly competitive coffee market. It wasn't until 2025 that the number of NOWWA coffee stores quietly exceeded 10,000, astonishing many investors.

It should be noted that at the end of 2024, NOWWA only had more than 1,200 existing stores, but then it began to grow explosively. In January 2025, the number of stores exceeded 2,000, and in July, it soared to more than 3,000. By the end of the year, the total number of NOWWA's global stores had exceeded 10,000. Among them, NOWWA opened a maximum of 1,800 stores in a single month.

After the fierce competition in the Chinese coffee market, this situation undoubtedly piqued the research interest of investors.

According to the investment community's research, NOWWA Coffee has completed at least seven rounds of financing since its establishment, attracting institutional investors such as 37 Interactive Entertainment, Yuanxing Capital, Boli Venture Capital, GSR Ventures, SIG Asia Investments, Belle Group's Consumer Fund, Shengjing Jiacheng Fund of Funds, and Yongshan Tianji. In the past few years, the ready - to - drink coffee track had entered a quiet period, but NOWWA continued to attract investors and gathered a group of leading institutions.

The latest situation is even more shocking. In this Series C financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, multiple well - known investment institutions have come together: Shengwang Fund under New Hope's Caogen Zhiben, Challenger Capital, which has invested in many successful consumer products, and GSR Ventures, which has accurately bet on many unicorns. They form a combination of industrial capital giants, outstanding new - consumer operators, and unicorn hunters.

In the view of industry insiders, on the consumer side, NOWWA Coffee has solved the pain points of consumers, such as "drinking healthily" and "drinking conveniently". On the partner side, relying on digital capabilities combined with take - out services, it has expanded the service coverage radius, bringing in incremental customers and revenue, forming a positive business cycle. More importantly, it has found a scalable path in a complex and highly competitive market. This comprehensive ability honed in a competitive environment has really refreshed the industry's perception.

It is expected that these well - known institutions are likely to rely on their respective core advantages to provide differentiated industrial support for NOWWA Coffee in terms of supply chain, channel and operation, overseas expansion, and financing. Specifically:

Legend Capital will support the establishment of full - scale channels and digital upgrading, and connect new - consumer resources;

Shengwang Fund, backed by New Hope, will provide the ability to integrate the entire food industry chain and optimize supply - chain costs;

Huaying Capital will be deeply involved in strategic operations, assisting in the planning of the capitalization path and the building of private - domain traffic;

Challenger Capital will leverage its consumer - ecosystem resources to share chain - operation experience and ideas for global brand layout;

Yuanxing Capital will focus on supply - chain upgrading and product R & D to support the large - scale expansion of stores;

GSR Ventures will allocate top - tier resources to provide professional support for channel expansion and financing rhythm.

This kind of grand occasion is rare in the history of the Chinese coffee market.

The Secret of a Coffee Dark Horse Rising to Open 10,000 Stores

At this moment, why do leading VCs unanimously bet on a coffee brand? Through communication with the investment community, a key word emerges - amazing growth ability, just like NOWWA's rapid expansion to over 10,000 stores in a year.

Specifically, NOWWA Coffee has an innovative business model. The NOWWA team provides raw materials, recipes, and orders, while the partner stores are responsible for the venue and production. Starting from a space of about 10 square meters, the brand has rapidly achieved large - scale development.

It is worth mentioning that since its establishment, NOWWA Coffee has targeted the take - out market, that is, using digital operations to expand the consumer coverage radius. Online orders have always been a major source of NOWWA's growth, and it has become one of the fastest - growing beverage brands on take - out platforms.

After the stage of rapid expansion in the industry, people began to pay more attention to internal strength and the core elements supporting future high - speed and stable development. The self - owned supply chain has become one of the key points. NOWWA Coffee has quickly established its own coffee production and raw - material supply system. Its coffee roasting factory was officially put into operation in 2025, with an automated scale that can improve product quality by more than 30%, reduce raw - material costs by about 5%, and lower labor costs by 40%. In addition, it has established 15 warehousing and distribution centers across the country, optimizing the upstream supply - chain capabilities.

Historical experience has shown that there are generally two models for large - scale expansion in the ready - to - drink beverage track: extreme cost - effectiveness and extreme differentiation. Recall that in 2017, Luckin emerged suddenly, breaking the mid - to - high - price strategy of Starbucks - dominated freshly brewed coffee brands in the market.

However, NOWWA has found its own path. Previously, Guo Xingjun, the founder and CEO of NOWWA Coffee, said in an interview that NOWWA once followed the trend and launched low - price coffee, but soon realized that "price competition is not the most advanced form of competition. In the end, it should be about brand concept, brand spirit, and differentiation." So, the team quickly adjusted its strategy.

After exploration and research, the NOWWA team found that the healthy coffee market has great potential and less competition. So, since 2023, NOWWA has entered the healthy - consumption track, successively launching sugar - controlled coconut latte, 0 - lactose A2 latte, and pioneering 0 - fat latte, quickly shaping the perception of "delicious without worrying about gaining weight" in consumers' minds. Now, NOWWA has become one of the most well - known brands in the healthy coffee market.

Meanwhile, in order to deeply engage with its core customer group, NOWWA has collaborated with games like Punishing: Gray Raven and Miracle Nikki, as well as the trendy toy brand Wakuku, quickly increasing its exposure. On the day Wakuku's cooperation was launched, the average daily sales volume of participating stores was nearly a thousand cups, and the efficiency of attracting new members increased by more than 1,100% month - on - month. The cooperation between NOWWA and The Mysterious Tales of the Tang Dynasty and the popular IP "Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow" from the Gansu Provincial Museum led to the sold - out of packages in thousands of stores after the launch.

In the Era of 10,000 - Store Coffee Chains, a Group of Global Brands will Emerge in China

In fact, NOWWA's achievement of opening 10,000 stores last year not only verified the growth potential of the coffee market, a golden track, but also explored an effective differentiated path, indicating that there can be multiple ways for high - speed growth in the coffee market.

Recall that in 2023, when the number of Luckin Coffee stores in the Chinese market reached 10,000, the Chinese domestic coffee industry officially entered the "era of 10,000 - store chains". In the following years, more players emerged in the coffee track, quickly spreading from first - and second - tier cities to lower - tier markets. Behind this, the Chinese coffee market is showing strong growth potential, with core opportunities coming from the continuous penetration of high - frequency, daily - consumption scenarios and the expansion space in lower - tier markets.

Moreover, there is a greater imagination space in overseas expansion.

Looking back at 2025, brands like Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, Guming, Shanghai Aunty, and Cha Ba Wang Ji queued up to complete their IPOs, and they all set their sights on "globalization". This scenario is expected to be repeated in the coffee track. Data shows that NOWWA has accelerated its coverage of more than 300 cities in China and overseas markets such as Australia and Southeast Asia.

After all, with the restructuring of the global industrial chain, "going global" is an irresistible trend. After experiencing intense competition in the domestic market, Chinese coffee players may have a "competitive advantage" when going overseas, which has been proven in many overseas - expansion industries.

As all consumer investors believe, a group of global brands will surely emerge in China.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment Community" (ID: pedaily2012), written by Yang Wenjing and published by 36Kr with authorization.