China’s on-demand beverage startup Luckin Coffee has closed its Series B+ round to raise USD 150 million, four months after it reaped USD 200 million in its Series B round, 36Kr reported on Thursday.
The bulk of this funding—a total of USD 125 million—came from a private fund managed by BlackRock. Luckin is now valued at USD 2.9 billion.
Luckin Coffee, which reportedly lost RMB 857 million (USD 124 million) in the first three quarters of 2018, is still operating under a cash-burning strategy to gain market share. The company has planned an initial public offering for this year.
The company, which aims to surpass Starbucks in store numbers, launched a generous ten-week-long promotion campaign in March, offering a pot of cash worth USD 7.5 million to its frequent customers.
The company plans to open 4,500 stores in China by the end of this year. Starbucks had 3,600 locations in China in 2018, and plans to boost that number to 6,000 by 2022.
36Kr is the parent company of KrAsia. Contact the writer at jingli@kr-asia.com.
