Plant Protein Beverage Brand Oatoat Completes Pre-A Round Financing

Vegetable protein beverage brand oatoat has completed a Pre-A round of financing worth tens of millions of yuan, exclusively invested by IMO Ventures, according to 36Kr. 

Established only five months ago, the company has already completed two rounds of financing, including an angel round led by China Growth Capital and followed by WE Capital with an undisclosed amount. 

The two financing rounds reached an estimated amount of tens of millions of yuan. Waverider Capital and Palm Capital served as financial advisors for the two rounds of financing, respectively.

According to Sue, the founder of oatoat, the brand has no food additives in its beverages, which are extracted from oats, aiming for a purer and more natural taste.

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Due to the increasingly popular pursuit of a healthier diet as well as the rising awareness to consume cruelty-free products, the Chinese beverage market has seen robust growth in oat milk in recent years. Swedish oat drink brand Oatly has taken over the Chinese market by storm, especially favored by Gen-Z consumers. From January to April 2020, Oatly’s sales on Tmall and Taobao increased by 115.4% and 2305.7% year-on-year. The market darling even reached a cooperation agreement with Starbucks this April and developed a popular product – oatmeal latte coffee. 

The market size of the oat milk industry is expected to reach 260 million yuan in 2020, as predicted by Tmall. The e-commerce giant also revealed that during the decade between 2007 to 2016, the compound growth rate of China’s plant protein beverages was 24.5%, ranking first among all types of drinks.