China’s JD leads $70M investment in fresh produce etailer FruitDay

FruitDay, a Shanghai-based ecommerce startup that sells fresh produce, announced today it has completed a US$70 million series C funding round. JD, the country’s largest online direct sales company, led the round, followed by SIG and ClearVue.

FruitDay claims to be the largest fresh produce etailer in China by revenue, though it did not disclose how much revenue that is.

"For over six years, FruitDay’s dedication to providing Chinese consumers with the best possible experience shopping for fresh produce online has helped us become the clear leader in this fast growing vertical," said FruitDay founder and CEO Wei Wang. "The financing announced today will allow us to continue strengthening FruitDay’s market leadership as we build a world-class management team and further expand our cold chain logistics and upstream supply chain capabilities."

As part of the investment, FruitDay "will augment their existing delivery network with JD.com’s, particularly in areas where they have developed less logistics infrastructure," a JD spokesperson tells Tech in Asia. JD has one of the most advanced logistics networks in China, promising customers free 1-day delivery on most of its products.

Fruitday imports 80 percent of its inventory from countries like the US, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and South Africa. "Our user base tends to be upwardly mobile consumers, who increasingly are buying imported fruit, including many varieties that have been traditionally unavailable in China. For example, avocados have seen an enormous boom in China, with sales increasing more than 125 fold since 2011 according to third party data," the JD spokesperson said.

Founded in 2009, FruitDay expects to have more than 10 million users this year. 80 percent of its orders are placed through mobile devices. More than 60 percent of its orders come from outside Shanghai.

JD already offers a wide variety of fruit, seafood, and other fresh foods, including milk flown in from Australia. JD’s biggest competitors are ecommerce titan Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao marketplaces. Both Alibaba and JD are racing to sign up producers and wholesalers to capitalize on China’s growing demand for foreign foods. In 2013, Tmall started allowing US food companies to ship directly to customers in China.