China’s pet economy is booming, and investors are ready to catch on to this market opportunity.
FURFURLAND (Chinese: 毛星球) has secured tens of millions of CNY from a Pre-Series A+ funding round in July. The proceeds came from the exclusive investor of NICE Group (Chinese: 纳爱斯集团).
Founded in 2018, the firm's main products include pet food. In April 2021, the full-price staple food can for cats became the brand's explosive product as soon as it went on the market. By the end of June this year, the sales volume had exceeded 2 million cans.
The team is professional but has limited experience in the pet industry. Xu Yin, the founder, is a serial entrepreneur in the Internet sector. Co-founder Kay used to be in the advertising industry and served many trendy brands such as Nike, Adidas, Vans and BMW. Besides, Annie, the other co-founder, once served as a senior VIP financial consultant of China Merchants Bank.
The firm adopts the business strategy of selling offline through channels and online using direct selling. It has covered more than 10,000 distribution terminals offline. Despite COVID-19's influences, the firm could still achieve decent results as the sales are said to have recovered to the highest-level pre-pandemic.
Online, the firm has already entered major e-commerce platforms. For the ‘618 shopping event', its sales turnover in the first thirty minutes exceeded that of last year's 'double-eleven shopping event'.
The general growth trend of the pet industry and development towards segmentation both indicate the necessity of brand upgrades. In order to clearly convey the brand concept, FURFURLAND will improve its design, brand culture, product features refinement and others to improve the overall brand recognition.
Nonetheless, the firm needs to pay attention to competition. Domestic rivals include KERES, HOOPET and SHANDAI.