Zihaiguo — the ¥7.5B self-heating hotpot star — is in bankruptcy review

Zihaiguo was founded in 2018 by Cai Hongliang, who had earlier built and sold the snack brand Baicaowei, and it rode the stay-home economy like no other brand: five funding rounds between 2018 and 2021 raised more than ¥550 million from investors including CICC and Matrix Partners, the valuation reached ¥7.5 billion, and the brand once sold 5 million self-heating cups in ten minutes — on Double 11 in 2020 its Tmall store crossed ¥100 million in 21 minutes. Revenue ran ¥800 million in 2019, ¥958 million in 2020, ¥992 million in 2021.

The losses ran alongside: ¥152 million in 2020 and ¥318 million in 2021, while the company expanded SKUs into the hundreds and, from 2021, built fifteen of its own factories. Then 2022 arrived: stay-home demand collapsed, delivery and dining out took back the occasions the product existed for, and revenue fell almost 20% to ¥820 million. Customers complained the food tasted worse than fresh cooking, the heating packs smelled of plastic and could scald, and the price no longer made sense. Staff later admitted sales 'halved all at once'.

The endgame was capital, not product. In 2023 a rescue acquisition by Lianhua Health fell through — the offer implied a valuation of about ¥3 billion against net assets of ¥140 million — and with it went the last funding bridge. Lawsuits piled up: in 2024 the company was enforced to pay ¥11.25 million of unpaid advertising fees to Focus Media, and the factory network began shutting down. On February 5, 2026, a bankruptcy review case — (2026) Zhe 0110 Po Shen No.18 — was published at Hangzhou's Yuhang District People's Court.