Luckin is a China-focused coffee startup building a network of last-mile coffee delivery kitchens, pickup stations and cafes as an alternative to Starbucks. Customers order and pay through its app, which had 650,000 unique downloads in March. The company targets busy white-collar workers and emphasizes delivery and convenience over Starbucks’ brick-and-mortar experience. As of the article, Luckin operates 2,000 outlets across 22 Chinese cities and plans to expand to 4,500 outlets by the end of 2019. The company has pursued aggressive, cash-fueled growth, burning $150M within six months and repeatedly raising capital. Recent fundraising activity valued Luckin at $2.9B post-money; the startup did not disclose how it will deploy the latest proceeds. Luckin operates a network of sit-down cafes, pickup booths that double as delivery hubs, and take-out kitchens dedicated to delivery, aiming to serve office workers with coffee delivered within 30 minutes. The company soft-launched in January and has rapidly expanded to more than 1,700 shops across 21 major Chinese cities. Luckin spent aggressively on expansion, burning through $150 million within its first six months of operation and holding a cash reserve of 2 billion yuan (roughly $290 million) as of July. The startup emphasizes product, technology, and business-development investment to improve user experience. Its founder and CEO Qian Zhiya previously served as COO at CAR Inc. Luckin positions its dense store footprint as a competitive differentiator versus incumbents like Starbucks, which had about 3,300 stores in China as of May.

Total raised

$350M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Apr 2019