Amazon has invested $20 million of funding in Shanghai-based online food vendor Yummy77. It is the first time for the U.S. e-commerce giant to invest in a Chinese company after entering Chinese market for ten years. Amazon disclosed that it will hold a minority stake in Yummy77, which will continue its independent operation after the funding.
The fund is expected to help Yummy77 to enrich product categories and expand operation networks beyond Shanghai.
Launched in Feb 2013, Yummy77 is focused on fresh and gourmet foods, such as seasonal fruit, fresh seafood, eggs, meat, dairy products, etc., taping the growing demand among urban residents for high-quality imported foods and swift delivery. The company’s sales reportedly exceeded 100 million yuan (around $16 million) in December last year and its registered users reportedly surpassed 1 million as of Feb. this year.
Amazon launched online fresh food business Amazon Fresh in 2007 in the U.S. market. But it does not provide this service in China. It is worth noting that Yummy77 is the B2C fresh food unit of TRUE, a listed subsidiary of Chia Tai Group.
As one of the global pioneers in e-commerce industry, Amazon’s performance Chinese market is eclipsed by its Chinese peers. The company is putting more focus and becoming more active in Chinese market with the landing of Kindle devices and cloud service AWS in China last year.
image credit: Yummy77
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