(Yicai Global) Jan. 12 -- Chinese fruit retailer Pagoda raised CNY1.5 billion (USD231 million) in Series B round of financing. Pagoda that has a global supplier network from New Zealand to the US will use new funds to expand its fruit chain network and improve research and development.

Investors in this round include Zhongjin Zhide, ZZ Capital, Co-Stone Capital, Source Code Capital, Yuexiu Industrial Investment Fund, and Shenzhen Capital, reported Jiemian.com. With new financing, the company will accelerate fruit industry chain construction, strengthen post-harvest scientific research and cultivation of research talent, and help improve the efficiency of the fruit industry, said Jiao Yue, vice president of Pagoda. It will also open franchising services to attract more partners and provide them with systematic personnel training by fully outputting standards and systems.

Pagoda, founded in 2001, is a fruit chain retail enterprise that currently owns over 2,500 physical stores and over 200 fruit planting bases. It has achieved significant profitability in recent years. Pagoda's annual sales amounted to just CNY560,000 in its first year. In 10 years, the number of its stores rose to 344 with a turnover of CNY700 million. In 2016, turnover jumped to CNY6 billion.   

At present, Pagoda is constructing a fruit pickup network based on its stores. Its offline stores provide customers with experience-based consumer services, while its online stores use Pagoda's app and third-party online to offline, known as O2O, platforms to provide delivery services within a 3km-radius under one hour, the company says.