Fullpet completed its Series B funding round with almost CNY 300 million or USD 44 million. Investors in this round of financing were Kaiyi Investment, Hffund, Shenzhen Capital Group, Jinding Capital and its previous round investor Addor Capital.
China presents a significant opportunity for pet food and pet care companies.
Fullpet (福贝宠物), a Shanghai-based company who focus on the production, processing and retailing of high-end pet food (cat food, dog food, and other small animal food), completed its Series B funding round with around CNY 300 million or USD 44 million. Investors in this round of financing were Kaiyi Investment, Hffund, Shenzhen Capital Group, Jinding Capital and Fullpet's previous round investor Addor Capital.
The money raised will be applied in branding and the construction of the "first intelligent pet food factory" in China.
The company currently has two factories in Shanghai and Anhui. In 2018, it launched the construction of the third intelligent factory in Jinshan, Shanghai and is expected to operate in 2020. After completion, Fullpet will become the largest pet food manufacturer in China.
According to Statista, revenue in the Pet Food segment amounts to USD 926 million in 2019. The market is expected to grow annually by 3.6% (CAGR 2019-2023).
Another official statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics said that the value of China's pet market reached USD 25 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow 13% this year. This particular industry has grown out of nothing till today’s hundreds-of-billions-of-dollar business in 10-years time -- another China's miracle.
Moreover, it has attracted a growing number of venture capital investors. The deal closed has increased steadily and the deal value this year amounts to CNY 12 billion in the first half of 2019.
Similarly, Petplus (宠加) and Downyball(毛球殿下) were two other pet brands that received USD 5 million and hundreds of millions of yuan respectively in recent two weeks.
The pet market is growing because the pet owner in China is growing. According to a report published by web portal Goumin (狗民), an online community for dog lovers, the total number of pets (cats and dogs) in China amounted to 91 million in 2018, averaging three pets for every 10 households.
Behind this increase is a growing number of young Chinese who live alone and away from home who are turning to fluffy creatures for comfort and fulfillment. Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that in 2015, there were 20 million people aged 20 to 39 living alone in China, mostly in big cities.
Therefore, the rise of the pet market is one of the solutions to the young-Chinese-loneliness.