Data-driven iteration helped China’s Genki Forest become a $6B beverage giant in 5 years.
Many Extra Crunch readers will not have heard of China’s fastest-growing bottled beverage company: Genki Forest is a direct-to-consumer startup that started selling its sodas, milk teas and other products just five years ago. Today, its products are available in 40 countries and the company hopes to earn $1.2 billion in 2021. After closing its latest funding round, Genki Forest is valued at $6 billion. Industry watchers frequently compare the upstart to giants like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, but founder Binsen Tang comes from a tech background, having funded ELEX Technology, a social gaming company that found success internationally. “China doesn’t need any more good platforms,” Tang told his team in 2015, “but it does need good products.” Leveraging China’s robust distribution network, lighting-fast manufacturing capabilities and a vast pool of data that enables holistic digitization, Genki Forest sells more than 30% of its products online. “Everything feels right about th...