Mixue Ice Cream & Tea
蜜雪冰城
Mixue Ice Cream & Tea is China's largest ready-to-drink tea company by store count, with over 46,000 locations globally as of early 2025 — surpassing McDonald's and Starbucks in footprint . Founded 28 years ago as a small "Cold Wave Shaved Ice" shop in Zhengzhou, Henan, it listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in March 2025 at a valuation exceeding 100 billion HKD, drawing 1.84 trillion HKD in subscriptions at 5,324 times oversubscription .
The company's commercial engine is not retail margins but vertical supply chain dominance: 97.6% of revenue comes from selling ingredients, packaging, and equipment to its franchisees, with加盟费 accounting for barely 2% of income . It operates five production bases across Henan, Hainan, Guangxi, Chongqing, and Anhui with combined annual capacity of 1.65 million tons, and has pursued extreme backward integration — from direct lemon procurement in Sichuan's Anyue county to self-manufacturing creamer . As 暗涌Waves characterized it, "蜜雪冰城甚至不像是一个餐饮品牌，而是一个'生产极客'" — less a food brand than a "production geek" obsessively deconstructing beverages into industrial processes .
Its sole pre-IPO funding round came in December 2020, when Hillhouse Investment, Meituan Longzhu, and CPE源峰 invested over 2 billion RMB — a bet Hillhouse landed by deliberately pushing into unfamiliar下沉 markets rather than staying with premium brands like Heytea . The franchise model has proven resilient: 暗涌Waves noted that "加盟派完胜" in China's tea wars, with Mixue's 18.7% net profit margin in 2024 far outpacing奈雪's茶's losses . Risks are emerging, however: franchisee payback periods have stretched from 6 months during the 2020-2021 boom to roughly 18 months as of late 2023, with closure rates climbing .
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Coverage
He Yu: Eating a 5-Yuan Bowl of Beef Noodles Again After Three Years — You Have to Go Deep Into County Towns to Keep Your Fingertip Feel | End of 2025
It's not just about consumption or investment.
暗涌Waves·A Conversation with Thailand's First Unicorn Founder: From Orphan to $3 Billion CEO --- When Kavin Bhumikittikul was six years old, he watched his mother walk out the door and never come back. His father, a gambling addict, had accumulated crushing debts. The family shattered. Kavin and his siblings were sent to separate orphanages across Bangkok. Forty years later, he is the founder and CEO of Agoda, the online travel platform valued at roughly $3 billion — Thailand's first unicorn, and one of Southeast Asia's most consequential tech companies. I met Kavin at Agoda's Bangkok headquarters, a sleek glass tower overlooking the Chao Phraya River. He arrived without an entourage, wearing a company polo shirt and carrying his own laptop bag. The contrast between his current stature and his origins is almost too stark to process. Yet he speaks about both with the same even, analytical tone — as if describing data points in a business case rather than his own life. --- **"I learned to sell before I learned to read properly"** Kavin's earliest memory of commerce is selling candy to other children at his orphanage, age seven. He would buy bulk packs with his meager allowance
The fiercer the storm, the more powerful the lightning.
暗涌Waves·Consumer investor Yu He waited for two big fish like he was waiting for Godot.
I've stumbled through pitfalls and detours, celebrated victories, and felt the sting of regret.
暗涌Waves·After Reading a 1,000-Page Prospectus, Here Are the Secrets Behind Mixue Bingcheng's Stock Price
Nobody gets a better Mixue ice cream or tea just because they're richer.
暗涌Waves·The Only Funding Round Mixue Bingcheng Ever Took: The Fortune of Being Chosen
"Different Money"
暗涌Waves·ZhenFund's Tianyi Qin: Globalization Will Unfold Cautiously in a New Form
Investing overseas, but not talking about the destination.
暗涌Waves·A Globalization Guide for Chinese Founders: Slicing the World Horizontally
The word "globalization" — so brief, yet it encompasses so many narratives.
暗涌Waves·A Letter from a VC to Its LPs
A microcosm of China's golden age of venture capital.
暗涌Waves·"This Is an Ordinary Day" | 2022 in Review
Don't summarize unless necessary.
暗涌Waves·
