Chinese Tea Chain CHAGEE Files for U.S. IPO

Beijing time on March 26, Chinese tea chain CHAGEE publicly submitted its prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with its stock code set as "CHA", the pinyin of "tea".

The prospectus shows that in 2024, CHAGEE's GMV reached CNY 29.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 173%. The number of global stores reached 6,440, an increase of 83% compared to the previous year. Additionally, in 2024, CHAGEE's annual revenue was CNY 12.405 billion, a year-on-year growth of 167.4%, and the net profit was CNY 2.515 billion, a year-on-year increase of 213.3%.

As of 2024, 91% of CHAGEE's domestic GMV came from original leaf fresh milk tea. Among them, approximately 61% of the GMV was generated by the top three best-selling products of CHAGEE. Over the past three years, more than 600 million cups of Jasmine Green Milk Tea have been sold by CHAGEE.

In terms of marketing, from 2022 to 2024, CHAGEE's marketing expenses were CNY 73.6 million, CNY 260 million, and CNY 1.1 billion respectively, accounting for 15.0%, 5.6%, and 8.9% of the net income during the corresponding periods, with a total exceeding CNY 1.4 billion.

As early as 2018, CHAGEE established its overseas business department. Regarding the use of funds raised in this public offering, the prospectus mentioned that part of the funds will be used for technology investment and new product R&D, as well as for expanding the scale of stores in China and overseas and building an overseas supply chain network. As of December 31, 2024, among the 156 stores in Southeast Asia, 148 are concentrated in Malaysia. In addition, the first store in the United States is scheduled to officially open in Los Angeles at the end of this month.

In 2025, the new tea beverage industry is set to witness an IPO boom. Goodme, Mixue Group have successively been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, AUNTEA JENNY has restarted its Hong Kong IPO, and CHAGEE has applied for an IPO in the United States.