Food delivery startup aims to be the Xiaomi of spicy seafood, blows through crowd-investing goal

Food delivery startups are a dime a dozen in China these days, but Jacky Zhang, a former digital designer at Baidu, wants to add his own personal flavor to the oversaturated market. Zhang’s startup, Jacky’s Shrimp, might sound like a hole-in-the-wall hipster restaurant, but it has ambitions to become a nationally recognized brand for high quality spicy seafood.

Too niche, you say? Not according to the company’s backers on ecommerce company JD’s new equity crowdfunding platform. Jacky’s Shrimp raised over RMB 7.1 million (US$1.15 million) as of press time, reaching 150 percent of its goal within 24 hours. Add that onto the RMB 2 million (US$323,000) seed funding just announced by Gobi VC, and you soon realize this shrimpy startup is no small fry.

"Looking at recent market studies, we found that by 2017, China’s traditional fast food and food delivery market is expected to reach a market size of RMB 1.8 trillion (US$292 billion)," Zhang says. "Chinese consumers have shown a distinct love for seafood and spicy foods. Since rolling out in July 2014, we have invested zero in marketing and have already achieved profitability."

Put simply, Zhang wants Jacky’s Shrimp to be the Xiaomi of food startups. That means a primarily online business model with a strong brand and loyal customer base, just like the smartphone brand that now looks down on Apple and Samsung as the country’s best-seller. Jacky’s owns the product and the distribution channel, giving it a feeling of exclusivity. While Jacky’s has kitchens in cities where it operates, online ordering and delivery is the primary distribution tool. And rather than trying to pack in as much variety as possible like rival O2O food delivery startups that pander to all types, Jacky’s hones in on doing one thing very well: spicy shellfish.

"I was born and raised in Sichuan, China’s home of hot and spicy food. As a result, I grew up as a total foodie," Zhang says. "After graduating from college, I joined Baidu where I could put my technical knowledge to use from my studies. However, I felt that using my technical expertise to do something that I loved would be more satisfying. So, I combined my love for food with my love for technology to start Jacky’s Shrimp – it is a much more enjoyable career and I feel like I am doing something that makes people happy."

Customers receiving Jacky’s Shrimp gift boxes.

Delivery is available 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Each pre-cooked dish contains a secret recipe of organic, safe, and traceable crustaceans. Right now, it’s only available in Beijing, but customers in other cities can have it posted to them via a third-party courier. Besides the basic food delivery, gift packages and custom orders are available for holidays, office parties, and events.

"In 2015, we will continue to focus on building up operations in Beijing as our home base and gradually open up the market to other cities," Zhang says.

Right now, Jacky’s Shrimp doesn’t even have its own website or app. Instead, it relies on a Taobao store, WeChat account, and phone number to hawk its product. But it’s still early days.

Jacky’s Shrimp isn’t the first to adapt the Xiaomi-style business model to food. There’s also Call-a-Chicken and Call-a-Duck, both separate companies with very similar business models.