Hong Kong’s DayDayCook will merge with a blank-cheque firm to go public in the US, while Primavera Capital Group has officially established its US office.
HK-based DayDayCook heads to Nasdaq via SPAC
DayDayCook, a Hong Kong-based online cooking community platform backed by Alibaba, has agreed to merge with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to go public on Nasdaq, according to a press statement this week.
New York-listed Ace Global Business Acquisitions said on Wednesday that it will merge with DayDayCook in a deal that values the nine-year-old firm at $300 million. As part of the deal, Ace Global will complete a private investment in public equity of about $30-40 million, and DayDayCook will receive $46.9 million in cash from Ace Global’s trust account.
DayDayCook, which serves over 10 million paid customers worldwide, was created in 2012 by former HSBC banker-turned-online influencer Norma Chu. The firm produces short cooking instructional videos and posts across major social media, generating revenue by selling ready-to-cook (RTC), ready-to-heat (RTH), and plant-based food, condiments, and kitchen products.
Chu said in a press statement that DayDayCook’s revenue is expected to “increase rapidly” over the next few years as RTH and RTC foods’ penetration continues to deepen. Ace Global projects that the RTC food market will expand 20% annually to hit $150 billion by 2027.
Before moving towards a US listing, the firm raised $40.1 million through five funding rounds. Its backers include Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund; Hong Kong developer Henderson Land Development Co-Chairman Peter Lee Ka Kit’s private fund; and Adrian Cheng, the third-generation scion of Hong Kong’s Cheng family and conglomerate New World Development.
Chinese PE firm Primavera sets up US office
Chinese private equity firm (PE) Primavera Capital Group, an early investor in billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group, has officially established its US office in Silicon Valley.
Primavera, which has invested in over 60 companies through its Chinese yuan and US dollar funds, has set up the US office to operate alongside its existing office locations in Beijing and Hong Kong, Veronica Li, a Primavera investor wrote in a LinkedIn post earlier this week.
The establishment of the US office comes as the firm is in the process of raising $4 billion for its fourth US dollar fund, with a hard cap of $5 billion, Reuters reported in March, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 1 showed a fundraising update of $546.7 million from 15 investors for the new vehicle, Primavera Capital Fund IV, DealStreetAsia reported.
Primavera closed the predecessor fund, its third dollar fund, at $3.4 billion in November 2019. Investors in the previous vehicle included CTBC and the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System.
Primavera was founded in 2010 by Fred Hu, who initiated the firm’s investments in some of China’s biggest technology firms like e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, as well as its fintech spinoff Ant Group and logistics affiliate Cainiao Smart Logistics Network. Hu also led Primavera’s investments in TikTok-owner ByteDance; online short-video firm Kuaishou Technology; and artificial intelligence (AI) startup SenseTime.