Emerging low-alcohol beverage brand MissBerry has just announced the completion of its A+ round of financing, co-invested by CPE Yuanfeng and Adrian Cheng's C Ventures, with existing shareholders Matrix Partners China and Shangcheng Capital increasing their stakes. Since its launch in April 2020, MissBerry has completed three rounds of financing within 12 months, accumulating over 100 million yuan in total funding. In its launch year, MissBerry became the top fruit wine category on Tmall's Double 11 and was named one of Tmall's Top 10 Emerging Food Brands.

-01- Starting from "Women Drinking" to Meet the Inner Needs of Young Women According to the "Contemporary Young People's Light Drinking Survey Report" released by NetEase Shudu at the end of April this year, 80% of young people have fallen in love with "light drinking": Unlike traditional "toasting culture," "light drinking" pursues a hazy and lazy state of slight intoxication, without overindulging or getting drunk. Their main drinking needs are for fun and companionship, and low-alcohol beverages that taste good and are hard to get drunk on are more favored by women, who also seek aesthetics and ritual. As early as the end of 2019, Tang Huimin, then Director of RIO's Digital Retail Division, keenly observed that the opportunity for low-alcohol beverages had arrived, and that many of women's drinking needs were not being met by the market. So she founded the low-alcohol beverage brand MissBerry, targeting young women. Since its inception, MissBerry has embarked on a path of independent research and continuous exploration. The founding team and over 5,000 seed users spent several months discussing flavors, packaging, and bottle shapes. To find a factory that matched in terms of craftsmanship, taste, and execution, in the second half of 2019, Tang Huimin and the R&D team visited almost all low-alcohol beverage factories in China. After comparing them one by one, they finally selected a century-old distillery in Hangzhou. Together with this factory, they upgraded the fermentation process for fruit wine, improved and innovated debittering technology, and enhanced the "real fruit, slow fermentation" process, maximizing the retention of fresh fruit flavors and delivering a rich, layered taste experience. The team also innovatively designed a unique small square bottle, ensuring that good wine is housed in aesthetically pleasing containers. Ultimately, the Sweetheart Small Square Bottle series, with its diverse flavors and high aesthetic appeal, became a bestseller upon launch, ranking first in Tmall's fruit wine category for three consecutive months. On May 21, MissBerry officially announced that Liu Yu, who recently debuted as a C-position idol, would become the brand's spokesperson. The "more than one side" fresh drinking culture, which is both sweet and cool, resonated strongly with consumers, and the custom gift box sold out within two hours of going on sale. Standing with female consumers, abandoning traditional drinking culture, and continuously exploring multifaceted selves is MissBerry's original aspiration.

-02- Combining Product and Marketing, Cross-Border Innovation Creates Frequent Bestsellers Trying new things is the nature of this generation of consumers; rapid innovation is the only way to retain consumers who are "fickle." MissBerry has established its own flavor R&D laboratory, incorporating trendy culture loved by young people into its products, continuously providing fresh choices for users. At the beginning of this year, the sea salt hazelnut cocoa chocolate wine, co-branded with Daily Black Qiao, was launched as a limited edition for Valentine's Day and quickly sold out. Today, chocolate wine has become a regular bestseller for MissBerry, and it also sets a good precedent for MissBerry's future development of a "milk wine series" that includes coffee wine. In May of this year, MissBerry also collaborated with trendy IP WHIKO to develop two special flavors: "Mala Xiang Guo Wine" and "Iced Green Plum Wine," symbolizing individuality and multifacetedness, without limits or constraints, and "everything can be salty, sweet, or spicy." For a time, many DIY combinations appeared on social media, such as Mala Xiang Guo Wine with ice cream, Iced Green Plum Wine with crayfish, and various creative pairings became popular. This wonderful combination even caught the attention of Tmall Trend Live and became the main promotional product for the event. Innovative product R&D thinking and efficient product development capabilities allow MissBerry to quickly respond to market demands and changes, continuously developing more products that consumers love.

-03- Strong Offline Capabilities Are the Guarantee for Long-Term Brand Development Tang Huimin believes that a liquor team must possess comprehensive capabilities in brand, product, marketing, and channels. Compared to other categories, liquor brands need to create more scenarios offline. While MissBerry has been continuously active in online marketing, it is also accelerating offline distribution. After more than half a year of effort, MissBerry's sales now come 40% from offline channels. Currently, the brand has covered large supermarkets such as Metro, RT-Mart, and Tesco, convenience store chains like 7-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart, and new retail channels such as Hema Fresh and 7Fresh. MissBerry products are available in 10,000 terminals nationwide, and this number is expected to approach 30,000 by the end of the year. Previously, the shelf selection for low-alcohol beverages offline was limited, and there was a need to provide consumers with more choices. MissBerry precisely targets channels and covers target regions, offering distributors higher gross margins and attempting more online-offline integrated consumer interactions, achieving good sell-through and giving more channels and distributors confidence. "Making products like beverages, marketing like cosmetics, and channels like liquor" is Tang Huimin's summary of MissBerry, and it is also the strategy MissBerry will continue to implement in the future. CPE Yuanfeng has conducted in-depth research in the consumer sector for many years. Regarding the investment in low-alcohol beverage brand MissBerry, Hu Tenghe, head of its Consumer and Internet Investment Department, said: "As China's low-alcohol beverage market continues to grow, more and more new brands are joining the track. With precise customer positioning and more innovative and diverse product flavors, MissBerry is gradually growing into a trendsetting brand in this segment." "At the same time, MissBerry has a strong insight into the inner needs of young people, especially young female consumers, which makes us optimistic that it can continue to bring consumers a brand-new experience in terms of product flavor, craftsmanship, and brand power." C Ventures, as a well-known investment institution deeply rooted in the consumer sector, has long been positioned in the food and beverage track. Regarding the investment in MissBerry, Dr. Adrian Cheng, founder of C Ventures and a renowned cultural entrepreneur, said: "With the consumption upgrade of the new generation, food and beverages are gradually returning to value and culture under industrial accumulation. MissBerry brings young consumers a diversified product experience, taste, and value pursuit." "We value MissBerry's grasp of young consumption as a new-generation consumer goods company. We hope MissBerry can help expand the innovative ecosystem we are committed to building and grow together with young consumers." Speaking about the brand's future, Tang Huimin confidently said: "General emerging brands may have strong explosive power in the early stage, because marketing capability is the easiest to acquire, but later, product capability and channel layout capability will become the biggest bottlenecks. Traditional liquor companies that have advantages in supply chain and channels find it difficult to keep up with emerging brands in product R&D and iteration, as well as brand and product marketing. What MissBerry needs to do is to continuously explore new processes and flavors, create more fresh products for users, and accumulate brand and channel value over time. Then, using our proven successful model, we will expand into more series and ultimately become a low-alcohol beverage group brand loved by young consumers."

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