Premium Instant Black Coffee Brand SECRE Secures 100 Million Yuan Funding - How to Brew SECRE Drip Coffee Bags for Best Taste

According to the Tianyancha platform, boutique coffee brand SECRE completed a new funding round of nearly 100 million yuan on July 27, 2021, with investors including Bojiang Capital and Fanchuang Capital. Fanchuang Capital is affiliated with Ant Financial.

According to Beijing Business Daily, SECRE's current round of funding will primarily be used to accelerate the expansion of offline stores, brand marketing, and continuous research and development of innovative online and offline products. SECRE opened its first offline store in Shenzhen in 2020, and is expected to reach 50 stores this year.

The boutique coffee brand SECRE was established in Guangdong in 2019 and operates under Guangzhou Xini Technology Co., Ltd. Including the funding round completed on July 27, SECRE has completed a total of 5 funding rounds.

Market Entry and Product Strategy

In 2019, when Luckin and Starbucks were competing for the commercial coffee market, SECRE founder Fan Ruoyu further segmented the scenarios and target demographics, focusing on the ready-to-drink coffee market. The brand's first product was the "Donut" drip coffee bag.

From its first day of establishment, SECRE received a 5 million RMB seed funding round from Xia Yiping, co-founder of Mobike. Shortly thereafter, it began selling cold brew coffee concentrate on mainstream e-commerce channels, quickly capturing the hearts of young consumers with its "attractive" and "easy-to-use" approach.

Funding Rounds and Product Development

In November 2019, SECRE completed a second angel funding round of nearly 10 million RMB, receiving support from Farvision Capital and existing shareholders. In addition to providing excellent consumer experiences, the brand also emphasizes user operations, product research and development, and supply chain management. It adopted a subscription plus sales model to capture the consumer market. Shortly after completing the angel funding round, SECRE launched packaged instant coffee powder.

In May 2020, SECRE completed an A funding round of tens of millions of RMB, with Honghui Capital joining. Within one year of its establishment, SECRE completed three funding rounds. After entering Tmall, SECRE ranked among the top four in sales during Tmall's Super Brand Day coffee session in 2020.

Recent Expansion and Future Plans

In February 2021, portable boutique coffee brand SECRE completed an A+ funding round of tens of millions of RMB. In addition to continued follow-up investments from Honghui Capital and others, Wuxi Jintou also joined. According to an interview with SECRE founder Fan Ruoyu by 36Kr on March 3, 2021, the A+ funding round will primarily be used for offline coffee store expansion, brand building, and coffee product research and development and iteration.

Fan Ruoyu also mentioned in interviews that since the establishment of SECRE, he believes coffee can be consumed in multiple scenarios with different choices for different situations. Opening coffee stores was not an impulsive decision. SECRE opened its first offline store in Shenzhen in 2020, hoping to instantly meet consumer demands at any time and in any form in the future.

According to 36Kr, within less than two months after the Spring Festival this year, SECRE opened 5 new stores, with nearly 20 more currently under renovation and site selection preparation.

Market Landscape and Competition

With the rise of the "new coffee wave" in China, numerous boutique coffee brands have emerged, such as Manner, Seesaw, and Eagle Collection, all riding this fast track. Capital has also seen the surge in domestic demand for coffee and the continuous expansion of the coffee consumer base, with increasing capital flowing into the coffee market.

In this competitive coffee market, however, brands like Starbucks, Luckin, Seesaw, and Manner all have established market foundations. Compared to the aforementioned brands, SECRE appears relatively weaker in various aspects. So can SECRE truly break out and succeed?

Conclusion

Finally, as an ordinary consumer, what do you think of SECRE's products?

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Ready-to-drink and cold brew products have made coffee more convenient, but if you want to make your own cold brew at home, FrontStreet's Strawberry Candy blend is an excellent choice. It pairs a Panamanian Geisha with a Costa Rican honey-processed coffee, offering rose and orange on one side and grape, raisin, and strawberry-fudge sweetness on the other. Steeped cold it is sweet and lively, and if allowed to settle it develops a fruit-wine character.

For a floral, juice-forward cold brew, FrontStreet's natural Hambela from Ethiopia takes on magnolia, creamy strawberry, dried mango, guava, and black tea notes under low-temperature steeping. And for a bright, thirst-quenching option, FrontStreet's Kenya Tomato shows cherry tomato, snow pear, black plum, and smoked plum at low temperature, with its K72 double-washed processing keeping the cup clean.

Since cold brew uses more grounds per batch, FrontStreet suggests reaching for approachable everyday beans. The washed Gedeb cooperative coffee, with clear citrus and floral notes and honeyed sweetness, is a natural for cold brew, as is FrontStreet's Geisha Village Chaka for a balanced cup.