Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, July 29 (TMTPOST) – Chinese neighborhood retailer of fresh produce Missfresh terminated its 30-minute fast delivery service on Thursday as the company is hit by losses, massive layoff and decrease of market valuation.

The company held an internal online meeting on Thursday, informing the staff that most of the employees would be suspended from their work and that only a small proportion of the administrative, financial and human resource departments will continue to work at the company.

Missfresh had already conducted several rounds of layoff since last August. There are also cases of Missfresh delaying payment to employees, the payment of social insurance and compensation to workers, etc.

Missfresh, known for its promise of 30-minute deliveries, has also seen its operations severely disrupted by quarantine requirements, lockdowns and other policies designed to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The legal representative of Missfresh had been changed from the founder Zeng Bin to Sun Yuying. Xu Zheng, another founder of Missfresh, is no longer serving at the company’s board.

Missfresh announced only recently that it had reached a strategic partnership with Donghui Group. The latter was expected to subscribe to 200 million yuan of Missfresh’s shares. However, Missfresh has not received the fund to save its business operation.

Founded in 2014, Missfresh received an angel investment of US$5 million from Vision Plus Capital and GX Capital. Since 2015, the company received several rounds of financing from Tencent. By June 2021, the company had completed ten rounds of financing, accumulating a fund of US$1.5 billion from investors like Tencent, China Capital Investment, Lenovo Capital and Goldman Sachs.

Missfresh’s loss is highly connected with the resurging pandemic in China as the Chinese economy slows down and consumers have less consumption power.

Missfresh’s stock price on the Nasdaq had fallen to just US$0.14 on Thursday, about 1% of its initial public offering price of US$13 last June.