In January 2021, the total financing amount of Chinese new consumer brands exceeded 5.6 billion yuan. ¹

Here is the list of the investments:

From the above graph, we can see that the food industry and the beauty & personal care industry were still the most alluring sectors among investors, followed by the drink and mother & baby industries. What trends can we see from these investments?

Food & Drink

Besides frozen food and new bubble tea brands, functional food and Chinese baijiu are recent trends worthy of attention.

• Functional food

Two functional food brands gained financing in January. One of them is Nelo, founded in August 2020, and it targets young people from 25 to 40 years old. Its products include gummy, functional drinks, chewable tablets, etc, which are catering to consumers’ eye protection and gastrointestinal health needs. The brand’s next step is to launch new products made of functional ingredients on a quarterly cycle.

Nelo

Another brand is BUFFX. Founded in April 2020, BUFFX opened its Tmall store in October 2020. Sales of its ace product, Sleep Gummy, exceeded 20,000 units in two months. Four SKUs achieved an average monthly sales of over 20,000 units in three months. ² At present, BUFFX has launched 7 SKUs: BUFF X EAT, BUFF X SLEEP, BUFF X EYES, BUFF X SEXY, BUFF X VC, BUFF X ENERGY and BUFF X DRINK, separately aiming at problems that male users are concerned about, such as impotence, sleep problem, and eye problem, and problems that female users are concerned about, such as weight loss, skin problem and other problems.

BUFFX

• Baijiu

Redeveloping Baijiu is another trend in the food & drink market. Baijiu, which used to be a popular drink among middle-aged consumers, has gradually become popular among young people as some brands rebuild baijiu brands. Guanyun Baijiu was founded in 2014, and the founder wants to build a baijiu brand for young people. In January 2021, a significant investment from Genki Forest, a famous sparkling water brand in China, made Guanyun the market’s focus. However, before this investment, its sales already exceeded 30 million yuan in 2018 and reached 100 million yuan in 2019. ³ Guanyun Baijiu focuses on young consumers and launches a MINI package suitable for one person to drink alone. The products’ prices are below 1,000 yuan, making Baijiu an affordable drinking choice for young people.

Guanyun Baijiu

Beauty and personal care

In the beauty and personal care industry, two new brands are also impressive, and their similar trait is customization.

• Oral beauty

UNOMI, an oral beauty brand founded in October 2020, targets young female consumers who live in tier 1&2 cities. Its biggest selling point is its customized skincare service. After finishing an AI skin scanning and a questionnaire, users will get a customized nutrition report that recommends the most suitable oral beauty products for themselves. Later, they can also choose to order a nutrition box from UNOMI. This brand now has 11 SKUs and more than 20,000 registered users. Its average repurchase rate within 30 days is 15%. ⁴

UNOMI

• New fragrancy

Plustwo was launched in 2020. It positions itself as a fragrance personal care brand for girls' bedroom and bathroom scenes. At present, the brand has three product categories of hair care, body care, and perfume, and the customized shampoo, shower gel, and moon balm are the core offerings. Among them, the sales of balm products exceeded 60,000 units in September 2020. Its customized shampoo contains a base fluid, three different essence ampoules with different functions (anti-dandruff, anti-itch, revitalization, etc.), and three perfume ampoules with different scents, priced at 99 Yuan/set. Consumers can freely choose the effect and fragrance to DIY their own shampoo according to their preferences. A total of 150,000 pieces of the customized products were sold in half a year. ⁵

Plustwo

Images are from Internet.