36Kr learned that Zuodashi, a new takeaway retail brand, has completed tens of millions of yuan in angel round financing, led by Gaorong Capital and followed by Lighting Fund. It is reported that the funds raised in this round will be used for product research and development, channel expansion and brand building.

Zuodashi was founded in November 2018. The founder and CEO Dai Zhenkai is the former vice president and head of the trading platform division of Ele.me. He has managed over 100 billion transactions in 2,000 cities across the country. business. He told 36Kr that 80% of the current takeout scenes are simple meals, of which food accompaniments for one person are very important components, such as sauces, side dishes, soups, etc. Food accompaniments can bring a better consumption experience and higher price premium space. According to platform data, takeaway products with high-quality food accompaniments perform more prominently in terms of unit price per customer, repurchase rate and other indicators.

Currently, there is no standardized solution to the food accompaniment needs of the takeout scene. Traditional food accompaniment brands address family and dine-in scenarios, emphasizing cost-effectiveness, while take-out scenarios place more emphasis on one-person meals, convenience, and the matching of different catering categories. For example, in the take-out meal accompaniment scenario, consumers need a meal accompaniment solution that can be finished in one meal, but traditional 280g glass bottled sauces cannot meet consumers' needs.

Many takeout merchants have realized the importance of food accompaniments, but the pain point is that they do not have the professional ability to select food accompaniments and the industrial capabilities for large-scale production of flavors. They also cannot get more products without quality appearance packaging experience. premium. In addition, the traditional take-out meal preparation process uses manual operations, which not only poses health and safety hazards, but also faces problems such as high cost and low efficiency.

Zuoda Shi focuses on the selection and research and development of food accompaniments, trying to find the most suitable food accompaniments for each category of takeout. Its gourmet team members include food consultants from columns such as "A Bite of China" and "Taste of China", and its chief food officer is the famous food critic Dong Keping. Zuodashi extracts and decomposes flavors across the country. After standardization and industrialization, the process from obtaining a flavor to realizing productization only takes 15 days. According to reports, its product research and development and supply chain teams have more than 20 years of industry experience.

Currently, Zuodashi has launched two food accompaniment products. Different products correspond to different categories. For example, dried fish chili sauce is suitable for simple meals, fried rice, dumplings, etc., while appetizer sauerkraut is suitable for porridge, noodles, Rice noodles, etc., and there are differences in packaging color, shape, material, etc.

Dai Zhenkai said that Zuodashi adopts a "popcorn" strategy in the takeout ecosystem. When the theater found that selling tickets alone could not improve the square footage, it discovered the "movie + popcorn" scene sales. strategy, and Zuodashi will provide all restaurants with “popcorn” in the takeout scenario. Food accompaniment is a nearly trillion-level market with a huge space, but its imagination does not stop there. After acquiring enough merchants, Zuodashi will also consider launching high-margin takeout standard products for one person, such as braised meat and snacks, to further improve the restaurant's square footage efficiency. In addition to restaurants, Zuodashi also cooperates with takeout trading platforms, agency operations, takeout agents, etc. to provide goods to restaurants through these channels.

But this matter has three thresholds: first, the insight and understanding of the takeout scene, which involves research and development around the selection of food accompaniments for different catering categories, packaging design around the takeout scenario for one person, etc.; second, channel capabilities, the core It lies in whether it can access and enter 8 million restaurants, as well as the ability to operate online takeaways; the third is brand building, that is, how to create a good-looking, high-quality food accompaniment brand for the new generation of consumers.

Zuodashi sells products to takeaway merchants and has signed contracts with 20 super merchant brands in 2 weeks, covering nearly 10,000 stores across the country. The team has advantages in developing food delivery channels. Its members are former core executives of Meituan-Dianping and Ele.me. They have experience in channel development and management in thousands of cities and national business competition experience. In the early days, Zuodashi started from super brands. After winning the top super merchants in the country, it will gradually expand to small chain merchants.

Zuodashi Team

Zuodashi is headquartered in Shanghai. In terms of the team, the founder and CEO Dai Zhenkai is the former vice president and head of the trading platform business unit of Ele.me; the founding partners also include Li Ji, the former special assistant to the CFO of Meituan-Dianping and the head of national business strategy of the business unit, and the former Meituan-Dianping. Gu Xiao, regional general manager and head of national chain operations of Ele.me, Zhou Yinghong, former head of product operations of Meituan-Dianping and Ele.me’s national business operations SFE head, former regional general manager of Meituan-Dianping and Ele.me Manager Yang Lu, former chief information officer of the well-known chain brand "Mijie" Wang Liting, former senior development engineer of Huawei and EZBUY Zhu Hongjian, and former national training director of Delicious No Waiting Zhao Yili.