In uncertain times, the capital market remains cautious about catering. According to incomplete statistics from Red Meal Big Data, in the past year, there have been 175 financing events related to the catering industry, a significant decrease compared with 238 in 2022 and far less than in 2021. However, there are bright colors in the dull market. The number of brands that have received financing in areas such as Western-style fast food and automation equipment has increased significantly. Why are some tracks hot? Some tracks are starting to get cold? What changes have taken place in the logic of catering investment and financing? We try to take stock of the catering investment and financing events in 2023 in order to get food and inspiration from them. 
Continuous coolingF&B investment has cooled down in 2023Overall, investors have become more cautious about the restaurant industry in the past year. Reflected in the capital market, the cooling of industry investment and financing is expected. Judging from the catering investment and financing situation in the past three years, the total financing amount of the catering industry in 2021 will exceed 40 billion yuan. On average, there are new financing events every day, and there is no shortage of large-scale investment cases in tea, coffee, fast food and other tracks. But in 2022, the financing situation took a sharp turn for the worse. There were only 238 financing events in the catering industry in the whole year, which is nearly 100 fewer than the 337 financing events that occurred in 2021. According to incomplete statistics from Red Meal.com, there will be a total of 175 financing events related to the catering industry in 2023, a significant decrease compared with 2022. In terms of financing amount, the total financing amount in 2022 will only be 30 billion yuan, and there will be 28 financing events exceeding 100 million yuan, except for cases where the financing amount is not disclosed. By 2023, in addition to the cases where the financing amount was not disclosed, there will only be 20 financing cases at the level of 100 million yuan, with a total financing amount of about 4.3 billion yuan. 
Among them, the cooling of the noodle track is particularly obvious. Red meal big data shows that in 2023, only 3 financings will be generated in the noodle track, and only the three noodle brands of Bangbang Sister Snail Noodles, Wanfengting Banmen and Noodles Dada have received olive branches from capital investment. In terms of the amount of financing, they only got millions of yuan in financing. This figure is in stark contrast to two years ago. According to the statistics of Red Meal Big Data, in 2021, there will be a total of 21 financing events in the noodle track; In 2022, it dropped to 13. 
The bakery category is also cooling. According to the statistics of Red Meal Big Data, the number of financings in the baking track reached 16 in 2021, and in 2022, this number dropped slightly to 14, and in 2023, there will only be a total of 8 financings in the track. In addition, it is worth noting that in 2023, although the coffee market is hot, the halo of coffee in the eyes of capital has begun to fade, and there are still 27 coffee brands that have received financing throughout the year, but the total amount of coffee brands has been significantly reduced, down 65 compared with 20224%。
Where did the investor's money go?
In 2023, why do investors invest? After summarizing and analyzing the investment and financing situation of the catering market throughout the year, we found that the following four trends are worth paying attention to. 1. Throw it into snacks and drinks, "light" and "fast" are the key pointsHigh cost performance has become the mainstream of the catering consumer market, and capital also places hopes on brands with the characteristics of such products. In 2023, among the catering brands that have received financing, snacks and drinks will account for the vast majority, and a total of 85 financing events will be generated in the two major tracks of snacks and drinks. For example, Lao Han fried chicken, Kuafu fried skewers, braised goose, leg boss, etc. are all brands that focus on snack products. Dancing Berry Girl, Little Coffee Master, Xingyin Coffee, Tea Baidao, Tea Pavilion Order, etc., focus on the beverage track. In fact, judging from the investment and financing trends in recent years, snacks and drinks have always been the direction of capital key bets. After all, snack and drink brands are often small store types, light models, with a high degree of standardization, which can be replicated faster and simpler, which is conducive to large-scale development, and is also considered to be the category most likely to win the crown of 10,000 stores. Once the brand enters the "10,000 stores", it will be a different world in terms of economic benefits and brand influence, and capital will naturally focus on this potential track. 2. Differentiated categories such as "local characteristics" and "new Chinese style" are more attractiveIn the past year, more local snacks have begun to attract the attention of capital. Local specialty snacks such as Principal Bean, Eight Cows, Beijing Crispy Fragrance, and Beijing Accent all received financing last year. 
In addition to "local characteristics", "new Chinese style" is also a force that cannot be ignored. According to incomplete statistics from Red Meal Big Data, in 2023, a total of more than 10 new Chinese tea brands, including Camellia Jian and Hantang Xu, will receive financing. In the field of Western-style fast food, there are also a number of brands that focus on "Chinese-style hamburgers" that have won the hearts of investment institutions, including Limburgburg, Oddington, Kenwitin, etc. In the past, many people have always felt that the taste of Western-style burgers does not meet the taste of Chinese, and a large part of the reason why Chinese-style burgers can rise is to grasp the pain points of consumer demand, starting from the burger embryo and filling, and innovating a burger that is more suitable for Chinese stomachs. At the same time, it is generally lower than Western-style burgers, so it is also favored by the market. In general, whether it is a new Chinese tea, a Western-style fast food brand focusing on "Chinese burgers", or snacks that promote local characteristics, in essence, they are all concerned because of product innovation and differentiation. In the future, the competition in the catering industry will only become more and more fierce, and it will be difficult for brands to gain a long-term foothold in the market if they do not have their own product characteristics. 3. There is still an opportunity for coffee, and differentiated coffee brands are concernedAs mentioned earlier, last year's coffee track has cooled down compared with 2022, but this does not negate the investment value of the coffee track itself. In 2023, coffee brands with differentiation still get a lot of attention. For example, "Small Coffee Coffee", which "opened a coffee shop into a large company", found a difference in the location and got 4$4.8 billion in financing. Different from coffee brands opened in office buildings and business districts, it has opened many small shops in the lobby on the first floor of state-owned and central enterprises, and focuses on self-service fresh milk freshly ground coffee; There is also Xingyin Coffee, which has received two rounds of financing within a year, focusing on tea and coffee, which integrates coffee with Chinese tea culture, from Biluochun to West Lake Longjing to Yunnan Pu'er, with product differentiation. Starbucks CEO Na Sihan said in an interview in 2023 that China's current per capita annual coffee consumption is 12 cups, Japan's 200 cups, and the United States' 380 cups, and China's coffee market is still in its early stages, and there is still a lot of room for development in the future. According to the 2023 China Urban Coffee Development Report, the scale of the domestic coffee industry is expected to reach 369.3 billion yuan by 2025. According to a report released by World Coffee Portal, a research institute under Allegra Group, the number of branded coffee stores in China increased by 58% in the past 12 months of 2023 to a record 49,691. With strong addiction and a high repurchase rate, it is foreseeable that coffee is still a track with growth potential. However, under the fierce battle and scale war of the head brand, only more differentiated products can run out in the cracks in the future. 4. Strive for the upper reaches and focus on digital intelligenceIn 2022, the eyes of investment institutions have gradually turned to the upstream. In 2023, the phenomenon of upstream investment is still obvious. A number of enterprises focusing on R&D, production and operation of automation equipment, as well as some catering software service providers, have gained capital attention. Pudu Technology, which is mainly engaged in R&D and production of commercial service robots, will receive two rounds of financing of 100 million yuan in 2023; Kaye Technology, which focuses on the automation and upgrading of beverage equipment in chain stores, has also received an angel round investment of nearly 100 million yuan from Hillhouse Venture Capital and Qianhai Renzhi Capital. Ao Qiwei, an upstream business that provides digital products and services for restaurant companies, received strategic financing of more than 500 million yuan in May 2023. From the perspective of investment institutions, the upstream track often has high technical barriers, and unlike the front-end catering brands doing mass business, the main business of condiments, catering enterprise services, cold chain logistics, and ** chain as the representative of the To B business has in recent years to get rid of the trend of "regional" and "small workshops". Some investment institutions also pointed out that "nowadays, industrial resources are accelerating the concentration of leading catering enterprises, and at the same time, the digitalization process of China's catering industry is also accelerating." In his view, it is not surprising that capital is betting on companies that provide digital and intelligent services. Conclusion2024 has accelerated. Previously, after communicating with many investors, everyone generally said that the prudent and rational investment trend in 2023 may continue into 2024. After all, the 2024 of the catering industry may still be "generally difficult, local splendid". In such a situation, consumer investors will also pay more attention to the hematopoietic ability of the brand. For catering brands, it means putting more energy back to the differentiation of products and services, and the improvement of operational efficiency. In the foreseeable future, doing this well will be far more important than keeping an eye on the pace of financing.