This Rival of Starbucks Has Just Filed for a US IPO

Luckin Coffee of China is planning to list on the NASDAQ.

This week the company has filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and intends to list under the symbol “LK.”

The coffee chain, which has been called the fastest growing rival of Starbucks in China, has set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO.

The company was founded in Beijing in October 2017 by Jenny Qian Zhiya, and focuses on “pick-up” locations, which have limited seating but are located in high-traffic areas like office buildings and college campuses.

Luckin Coffee had total revenue of $125.3 million in 2018 and has raised $150 million in its latest round of funding from investors, which values the company at $2.9 billion. BlackRock Inc. is one of the investors.

Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, CICC, and Haitong International are the underwriters for the IPO.