Junjie Zhang

Junjie Zhang is the founder and head of Chagee (Bawang Chaji / 霸王茶姬), a Chinese fresh-milk tea brand that listed on Nasdaq in April 2025 and saw its shares jump more than 48% on the first trading day . He built the company from a single shop on Kunming's Wuyi Road to over 4,500 stores across China and overseas by early 2024, with 2023 GMV reaching 10.8 billion yuan . His early life was marked by extreme hardship: between ages 10 and 17 he was homeless and unable to read or write before turning 18, a history he disclosed to investor Hu Boyu (胡博予) of XVC at their first meeting . Hu has described Zhang as possessing exceptional self-taught business acumen, and one investor called him "at least a warlord" in the competitive tea market . Zhang has publicly framed Chagee's ambition as becoming a "modern Oriental tea" global brand, with North America expansion part of the strategy .