Wonton vape by Apple former senior executive closed 10 million yuan angel financing round from Yuanchuang Capital & Haofang Venture.
WONTON was founded in early 2019, focusing on electronic cigarettes. Its founding team is from Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Tencent, Cedar Holdings, Lexin Medical and other famous enterprises.
Founder Huang Yu has worked at Apple for nearly 10 years, successive director of southern China and business department of Greater China. He joined Lexin as chief operating officer in 2015. During this period, Lexin smart wearing rank second in selling amount (first Millet, third Apple), ranked fifth in global smart wearing sales in a year, and successfully launched an IPO on GEM in November 2016.
As for why he chose the electronic cigarette, Huang Yu talked about two reasons: first, traditional tobacco may be partially replaced by healthier new products like electronic cigarettes due to health hazards and environmental conflicts; second, smokers are less likely to quit nicotine like consumers are impossible to quit tea and coffee altogether. Nicotine and caffeine are known to be harmful to the cardiovascular system and addictive, but why is it difficult to get rid of them, because they have nothing to do with health knowledge but human needs. For smokers who can’t quit nicotine, the important value of electronic cigarettes compared with cigarettes is to minimize the harm of harmful substances other than nicotine.
Asked how to view the increasingly fierce competition in China’s electronic cigarette industry, Huang Yu admitted that when preparations for Wonton began at the end of last year, there were only Shanlan, Relx and other start-ups on the market. Unexpectedly, in 2019, a large number of entrepreneurs poured into the industry, and even Luo Yonghao, an influencer, was eager to try. The reason why so many entrepreneurs enter the industry is that besides optimistic business opportunities, some entrepreneurs may think that e-cigarettes “have no threshold” and are easy to succeed. In fact, the world’s “no threshold” business is the most difficult to do, entrepreneurs should maintain enough awe.
Huang Yu expressed cautious optimism about whether Wonton’s entry time was too late. As an “old driver” who has worked in the field of fast-selling products, 3C digital and intelligent health hardware for nearly 20 years, he has experienced the ups and downs of too many brands, so he has a relatively firm mind and is willing to plan and implement related strategies and tactics in a longer and more down-to-earth manner.
According to Huang Yu, Wonton will soon introduce two kinds of products, one-off vape and cartridge-changing vaporizer. In the future, his company will continue in three directions: first, ensure food-grade safety and make “Wonton” worthy of its name; secondly, through innovation and breakthrough in atomization technology, e liquid quality and formula, battery intelligent control technology and product ID design, to let consumers truly experience the charm of vaping; thirdly, to create conditions to “Wonton” brand with Chinese elements. WONTON has been pushed into the global market.
Fang Yuan, founding partner of Yuanchuang capital, said that e-cigarette is an irreversible trend in tobacco consumption market. At present, the whole e-cigarette market is still in a very elementary state, and the future will be the competition of products, brands and channels. We look forward to the persistence and abundant channel resources of the Wonton team for products and brands. They will be a “white horse” leading the upgrading of e-cigarette products. Innovation, market regulation and healthy development.
According to Li Bin, founding partner of Haofang Venture, Haofang Venture has been focusing on early investment in consumer electronics industry and has invested in star projects such as Nuts and Elvis Presley. Electronic cigarette industry has been paid attention to for a long time, and he has done a more in-depth research, very optimistic about the future space of the entire industry. For the investment of early projects, they have always been looking for the best team. This time, they are very lucky to be able to come together with such experienced and excellent entrepreneurs as Huang, and they are very recognized for Huang’s experience in product, channel and brand operation accumulated in Apple and Lexin. In addition to funds, we will also provide more help to Wonton through the high quality overseas channels of Haofang Group, expecting the first product of Wonton to sell well.
The company’s founder, Huang Yu, has more than 10 years’management experience in consumer electronics in China and Lexin Medical. The large amount of angel financing also reflects the capital’s confidence in the comprehensive strength of the team in products, supply chains, marketing and channels. As the sole financial adviser of this round, Tide Capital will continue to help it in the capital market. With the growth of the economy, the Tide Capital will continue to pay attention to the opportunities for new people and new products to upgrade their consumption.
