Heytea, one of China’s largest tea beverage chains, is reportedly closing a new round of financing which will valuate the business north of RMB 16 billion ($2.

3 billion), up from its last valuation of RMB 9 billion in July.

喜茶，中国最大的茶饮品连锁店之一，据说即将达成新一轮融资，这将使喜茶的估价从去年7月的90亿人民币攀升至到160亿人民币(23亿美元)。

Why it matters: Beverage categories are blurring in China with bubble tea chains Heytea and Naixue’s Tea competing head-on with coffee giants like Starbucks and Luckin Coffee.

为什么这很重要：中国饮品分类的界限正变得模糊，奶茶连锁店喜茶和奈雪的茶正与星巴克和瑞幸咖啡等咖啡巨头正面竞争。

Heytea rival Naixue’s Tea is reportedly gearing up for a $400 million initial public offering in the US.

据报道，喜茶的对手奈雪的茶正准备在美以4亿美元的市值进行首次公开募股。

Heytea pioneered the digitization of Chinese beverage chains by leveraging social apps like WeChat.

喜茶充分利用微信等社交软件，开创了中国饮品连锁店的数字化。

Beverage chains are feeling the pinch as a result of a significant drop in business due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and venture capitalists are assessing top players better positioned to weather the epidemic thanks to business scale.

饮品连锁店正由于Covid-19爆发导致的营业额大幅下跌而感到经济困难。

风险投资家正评估那些顶级企业。

多亏生意规模大，这些企业才能做好更充足的准备，顺利度过这次大流行病。

Heytea’s new funding round was led by global Asia-focused private equity firm Hillhouse Capital and Coatue Management, the US fund behind mobility titans including Didi, Lyft, and Grab, local media reported.

The size of the investment was not disclosed.

当地媒体报道，喜茶的新一轮融资由重心在亚洲的全球私人股本公司高瓴资本(Hillhouse Capital)和Coatue Management(蔻图资本管理公司)领投。

滴滴、Lyft和Grab等移动出行巨头幕后的资本就是Coatue这家美国公司。

Heytea is now operating 450 stores in upwards of 35 cities in China and four stores in Singapore.

The company has amassed 21.

5 million users on its WeChat mini-app as of 2019.

Of the total, 15.

8 million were newly added during the year.

喜茶目前在中国35个城市里经营450家门店，在新加坡还有4家门店。

2019年，这家公司在微信小程序上聚集了2150万用户。

其中1580万用户都是去年新加入的。

【喜茶即将达成新一轮融资查看网站：[db:时间]】