Source Code Capital portfolio company "Suplay" announced the completion of two funding rounds totaling over $10 million, with Source Code Capital as the sole investor in the Pre-A round

源码资本·November 3, 2021·0·1

A designer-toy consumer platform spanning the full IP and distribution chain.

Gen Z-focused full-industry-chain trend consumer company Suplay announced the completion of a tens-of-millions-of-dollars Series A+ round, led by miHoYo, with Lighthouse Capital serving as exclusive financial advisor. Earlier this year, Suplay had just closed a multi-million-dollar Series A round from Jixiang Capital. Source Code Capital was the sole investor in the Pre-A round. Following these two rounds, Suplay will further enhance its digital capabilities, continue investing in IP incubation and product development, and improve its channel infrastructure.

Since its founding, Suplay has consistently gained recognition from capital markets. In its two years of operation, the company has completed four funding rounds:

Late 2019: Hundreds of thousands of dollars in angel funding from LittleJoy
Early 2020: Millions of dollars in Pre-A funding from Source Code Capital
Early 2021: Millions of dollars in Series A funding from Jixiang Capital
October 2021: Tens of millions of dollars in Series A+ funding led by miHoYo

Suplay founder and CEO Huang Wanjun said: "Suplay is committed to becoming a full-industry-chain IP consumer goods company for Gen Z. We entered the market through online channels and have gradually built out upstream and downstream capabilities across the industry chain, carving out a data-driven path for IP incubation. This new round of funding will help us further expand our supply chain and enhance our channel capabilities to better serve more designers."

Third-party data shows that China's designer toy retail market has grown rapidly since 2015, with market size expected to exceed 70 billion RMB by 2024 and a compound annual growth rate of over 30%. However, the domestic designer toy market remains in its early stages. Compared to mature designer toy markets abroad, per capita spending in China still has sixfold growth potential, and industry concentration has room to improve.

Suplay positions itself as a designer toy consumption platform covering the full IP and channel industry chain. Currently, Suplay is dedicated to incubating and accelerating the growth of designer toy IPs on one hand, while on the other hand providing deeper support for designer toy IPs and designers by integrating manufacturing capabilities.

IP is the core competitive advantage of designer toy companies and the central moat of the industry. CBNData's Gen Z Niche Consumption Report shows that designer toys with IP backing command a higher market share and are growing faster. Through data-driven operations and strong execution, Suplay has demonstrated exceptional IP incubation efficiency. Additionally, Suplay has partnered with brands including Palace Museum Culture, Sanrio, and miHoYo to deeply explore more diversified IP development.

The blind box mini-program "Suplay Chaowan," launched in late 2019, serves as Suplay's primary channel and has evolved into a complete ecosystem encompassing designer toy draws, new product releases, and secondary market trading. This year, Suplay has accelerated expansion into mainstream offline sales channels, with offline channel revenue growing rapidly.

While mining IP and expanding channels, Suplay also completed a 100% merger with Heyfener, a designer toy design and production manufacturer, integrating the manufacturing segment to become one of the very few trend consumer goods enterprises covering the full industry chain. Li Xiaolei, former founder of Heyfener, will become co-founder of the group company, overseeing product operations. Suplay and Heyfener will continue operating as channel brand and manufacturer brand respectively, providing higher-quality services to outstanding designers across the market.

During this year's Tmall Double 11 event, the KIKI Wish Shop series of designer toys, distributed by Suplay and produced by Heyfener, sold out its entire initial pre-sale run of 4,000 sets (48,000 units), with estimated single-product transaction volume exceeding 3 million RMB. Among these, 2,000 box sets sold out in just two minutes, becoming a Tmall-selected super product in the designer toy category.

Xingchen Zhang of Source Code Capital said: "Suplay has demonstrated excellent capabilities and performance in design, IP, supply chain, and product operations. We look forward to the company reaching new heights in the designer toy space."