China’s largest pet-focused platform Boqii launches IPO in the US

Boqii was established in Shanghai in 2008 as a community designed to provide a vertically integrated social platform for pet owners and lovers where they could share their experiences with their pets and learn how to better raise and care for them.

In 2014, Boqii launched its mobile app, Boqii Pet, the largest pet-focused online community in China in terms of registered users in 2019 and average MAUs according to Frost & Sullivan, which covers all major aspects of pets’ life and offers pet products, services and content.

Currently, Boqii has 23 million registered users, including 3.5 million monthly active users. Boqii community has partnered with more than 860 key opinion leaders (KOLs) and boasted 334 million user interactions per month on average for the three months from April to June 2020.

In 2008, Boqii established an e-commerce platform, Boqii Mall. Boqii is redefining e-commerce for pet parents by providing an accessible, personalized and enjoyable shopping experience based on a deep understanding of our users and customers and their pets by leveraging extensive user interactions and transactional behaviors we have observed over the years.

As of June 30, 2020, the company had built partnerships with over 570 brands while the number of available Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) has climbed to over 17,000.

In addition, Boqii launched its own brand Yoken (with around 1,300 SKUs) in 2015 and its premium brand Mocare in 2018 with compelling quality and prices. As of June 30, 2020, the company was offering customers access to 2,130 SKUs sold under its private brands, accounting for 11.9% of the total SKUs.

In 2015, Boqii expanded its offline sales channels and develop business with physical pet stores, and introduced our proprietary SaaS solutions which help offline pet stores digitalize, streamline and optimize supply chain management and in-store operations. By investing in PetDog, China’s largest the largest pet store franchise and the largest training center for pet service professionals, Qingdao Shuangan Bio-technology Co., Ltd, a a leading pet food manufacturer in China, as well as several companies that are mainly engaged in the R&D and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.

Boqii has built a pet-focused platform covering the entire industry chain, including pharma R&D and manufacturing, animal breeding, private label, pet store franchise and  training center for pet service professional.

Boqii has cooperated with over 15,000 physical pet stores and pet hospitals over 250 cities in China as of June 30, 2020, and helps brand partners significantly expand their reach in a cost-effective and coordinated manner, bringing a comprehensive catalog to pet parents across China.

Boqii disrupts the traditional pet retail and services in China by fostering an ecosystem that connects and empowers various participants along the entire pet value chain, including brands, manufacturers, physical pet stores and pet hospitals. Boqii empowers them with valuable data insights into user demands, effective content-driven marketing, comprehensive inventory management and supply chain capabilities, and reliable nationwide logistics network.

For the fiscal year 2020, Boqii’s EBITDA stood at RMB -113 million (approx. -US$16 million), with a margin of 14.7%, an improvement compared to that recorded for fiscal year 2019. During the Q1 of fiscal 2021 (from April to June 2020), the company’s EBITDA was -35.43 million yuan (approx. -US$5.1 million) with the margin reduced to 14.9% from 18.6% for the same period of the prior fiscal year, reflecting the company’s continuous efforts in strategic investments. The continued improvement in the EBITDA margin demonstrates the success of the business model of the pet-focused platform.

 

Source: PRnewswire