Cathay Capital and Tencent Jointly Led the Series B+ Financing of the Leading Pet Brand “ChowSing”
October 4, 2021
Asia
Shanghai Chowsing Pet Products Co., Ltd. (hereafter “ChowSing”) announces the closing of its Series B+ funding round of nearly 400 million yuan (around 63 million dollars) led by Cathay Capital and Tencent. This fund raising will enable ChowSing to develop its brand building, to optimize its supply chain, and to enhance its product R&D and IT capabilities.
Since its creation in 2004, ChowSing has taken an original approach by choosing to focus on pet nutrition – through its flagship brand Nourse – as opposed to staple foods or basic products such as litter. With pet nutrition products R&D covering dogs and cats’ entire life cycle and formulas that combine taste and nutritional efficacy, ChowSing has quickly become the leading pet nutrition brand in China in terms of online sales volume. Its flagship products include anti-hair loss supplements, vitamins and calcium tablets.
This fundraising is the largest in the Chinese domestic animal healthcare sector this year and follows the strategy put in place over the past year around three main objectives: consolidating the supply chain, developing the Nourse brand, and continuing to gain market share. In April 2021, ChowSing’s flagship brand, Nourse, announced an investment of RMB 700 million (around USD 110 million) for the construction of a new factory in Anhui province in southern China. In this factory, a new pet food production line will be launched with the aim of reaching RMB 5 billion (USD 780 million) in annual production value upon completion.
This fundraising is the largest in the Chinese domestic animal healthcare sector this year and follows the strategy put in place over the past year around three main objectives: consolidating the supply chain, developing the Nourse brand, and continuing to gain market share. In April 2021, ChowSing’s flagship brand, Nourse, announced an investment of RMB 700 million (around USD 110 million) for the construction of a new factory in Anhui province in southern China. In this factory, a new pet food production line will be launched with the aim of reaching RMB 5 billion (USD 780 million) in annual production value upon completion.
According to Shaojun Lu, CEO of ChowSing: “Optimising the supply chain is a key element of the company’s future development. Although building a proprietary factory is a significant investment, access to an integrated, high-quality supply chain is the optimal solution to meet our long-term quality control requirements. In addition, an exclusive supply chain is ideally suited to address the elasticity of production capacity enabling us to adapt to production orders, thus ensuring a secure and stable supply of inventory over the long term.”
Jun Ma, Partner at Cathay Capital, stated: “The economic development and the social evolution of China, combined with the increasing number of individuals living alone, have translated into a massive growth in the number of pets and the attention given to their healthcare. However, the high-end pet food market in China has long been monopolized by overseas giants, and it wasn’t until ChowSing’s innovations both in taste and nutrition, which in turn was followed by increasing trust from pet owners, that the status quo was broken. We are very optimistic regarding ChowSing’s growth perspectives. The management team is constantly striving to deepen and improve its product development and its management of the supply chain. We are convinced that ChowSing will become consumers’ preferred brand in the future.”